In the world of translation, quality management standards are few in number and very limited in scope.
At european level, there is standard EN 15038 (see below), created to compensate for the lack of specific quality management regulation.
Internationally, however, there is a standard which, though not created specifically for translation services, is recognised in no less than 93 countries and used in a range of industrial and service sectors: ISO 9000.
The ISO first published this standard in 1987 and it has been revised twice, in 1994 and 2000.
Its purpose is to provide a universal basis for quality system management, regardless of the type of company or the economic sector in which it is applied.
In the most recent revision (2000), the elements included in the previous version are grouped in four main areas:
Further information can be found on the ISO website.
Standard EN 15038 was published in May 2006 by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). This standard was created specifically for translation companies and provides guidelines for optimizing their internal management and organization.
In particular, the standard includes guidelines on:
For further information, please visit the CEN website.