Planning the Globalized PT Application

Globalization and localization are not features that developers can add to an application as an afterthought. An application will not be localizable unless it is planned, designed, and coded for localization.

The LitWare designers know the locales (Germany, Japan, and the United States) and the arenas (hardware store and training center) for which the PT application will be localized. The following topics describe the design team's globalization efforts during the planning and research phases of the PT application:

• Identifying PT Application Locales describes the locales (Germany, Japan, and the United States) for which LitWare localizes the application.
• Summarizing Locale Characteristics identifies localization issues and discusses how these issues affect the design and coding of the application and impact the development timeline.
• Assessing Staffing Needs describes the roles of persons involved in the localization process. Localizing an application for different languages requires the expertise of translators and persons who are familiar with the conventions of the locales for which the application is localized.
• Adding Hardware and Peripherals describes the additional equipment that LitWare needs to test the localized versions of the PT application.
• Leveraging Localization Efforts describes the characteristics of groups of languages (alphabets, code pages, and direction of text), the development requirements that are shared within each group, and the tasks necessary to extend localization to another language within a group.
• Measuring International Functionality describes the criteria by which the LitWare developers measure a successfully globalized application.