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Mid-project process changes

office 6 years ago in Home Portal / Smart Projects updated by Łukasz Kaleta (Senior Customer Success Manager) 6 years ago 6

I have a project into FR, DE, IT and NL. I had planned to use a TEP provider for the translation into NL. Their delivery was too late for the client. I placed the translation and proofreading step with two freelancers (outside of XTRF because I couldn't find a way to add the NL freelancers).


I'm using a process fork and the FR, DE and IT providers have already accepted. How do I update the steps in the workflow to accommodate the NL freelancers? 

As far as I know, you can't edit forked processes, only the process template. That's why we stay away from forked processes until live editing in the project environment is possible. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Hi Sancho, thanks for your reply! May I ask how you handle projects into multiple languages where different processes are involved (e.g. a TEP provider for FR and IT and freelancers for DE and NL)? Do you have just one type of step called 'translation' and your TEP provider knows to always supply translation and proofreading? 


- Kim

I share your pain. Here are the two workarounds we are using for the time being. Naturally, we would like to see Smart Projects cover a lot more practical use cases. The forking idea is good in principle, but the lack of in-project editing makes it useless for us. When we started trying it out, we ended up with lots of canceled projects and PMs being frustrated.


1) Use the longest process chain template that covers all your needs for multiple languages in the same project and then cancel out the steps you don't need. Note: Pay attention to the file category output and input for each step. If you enable several file categories for delivery, you need reliable vendors who know what they are doing in the Vendor Portal.

2) Create separate projects for language groups that share the same process and tie these projects together (for invoicing and reporting purposes) using a virtual field such as "Master ID", which was recently discussed on UE.


Hope this helps!

Thanks for your feedback Sancho! Creating a custom "Master ID" field is a good idea. I wish we wouldn't have to find such complicated workarounds. :)

+1

We do something similar to Sancho's #1 - we frequently have complicated workflows and delete the steps that we don't use. 


We see the value of having a master ID, but it's another field that you need to track for. We usually have a set naming structure to link the projects - so we can put the client project identifier as the first part of the project title.