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Agile Practice Guide translated versions leave a bit to be desired . . .

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Mauricio Fuentes Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador
This comment refers to the presentation of the Agile Practice Guide, not its content.
The Agile Practice Guide is now available in 11 languages, besides English.
I downloaded the Spanish version and as I started going through its pages, I couldn't help but get a feeling that the translated versions of the Agile Practice Guide are a bit rough regarding presentation. I downloaded two other translated versions (russian and german) just to verify whether this was an issue particular to the spanish version but this roughness seems to be something that applies to all translated PDF versions of this guide.
Here are some differences regarding the presentation of the Agile Practice Guide translated versions compared to the original English version:

1 - The translated versions do not include the cover which appears in the original English version. This applies to the PMBOK v6 translated versions as well and I suspect that most if not all recently translated documents published by PMI in PDF format do not include the original cover. I wonder why this is so.
2 - The translated versions do not include the Table of Contents nor the List of Tables and Figures. It's a matter of practicality to include these elements to facilitate the reading experience of the user.
3 - All of the text which is not part of the main text in the original English version, such as sidebars, tips, call outs, examples, etc. are presented as continuous text in the translated versions, preceded by *****SIDEBAR***** (or the corresponding denomination) and followed by *****END SIDEBAR***** (or the corresponding denomination). This makes the translated versions seem more like a Word document than a book. These texts interrupt the normal flow of reading.
4 - None of the text which appears in the figures of the translated versions is translated. This text appears in English in the translated versions. So if the reader does not speak English or is not too familiar with the English language, this guide will not be entirely usable for him/her right off the shelf.
5 - Not even the Process Groups and Knowledge Areas Table was translated (Table A1-1 in the Agile Guide). This is puzzling because this table appears in its translated form in the PMBOK v6 as Table 1-4. There seems to be a disconnect somewhere in the translating/editing process of the Agile Guide.

I don't know whether these are the final versions of the translated Agile Guides. I hope that they are not and that someone is working somewhere, to make the translated versions of the Agile Guides easier to read.
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Mauricio -

Perhaps these translated versions are MVPs created by the volunteer committee and PMI to do some validated learning to gauge how much interest there is in non-English versions before they invest the effort in producing full versions?

Also, as this is the first release of the practice guide, it's possible they may be planning to have a release two fairly soon based on preliminary feedback and they might choose to focus full translation efforts on an updated edition.

Kiron
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1 reply by Mauricio Fuentes
Jan 14, 2018 5:03 PM
Mauricio Fuentes
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Hello Kiron,

Yes, I agree that the translated versions of the Agile Guide seem to be some sort of drafts.
Indeed you can already find the spanish paperback version on presale in Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Spanish-Pr...dp/1628254149). I am willing to bet that the printed versions of the translated guides will be on par with the English version.

Nevertheless, it bothers me a bit that these translated versions are out there as finished products when in fact they are not. The only finished product is the English version. It would bother me quite a bit more if I had to pay for downloading the translated versions as they are.

Mauricio
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Vincent Guerard Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Will look a the french version compare Spanish.
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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Yes I suspect subsequent releases will fix the translation discrepancies.
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Mauricio Fuentes Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador
Jan 14, 2018 4:33 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Mauricio -

Perhaps these translated versions are MVPs created by the volunteer committee and PMI to do some validated learning to gauge how much interest there is in non-English versions before they invest the effort in producing full versions?

Also, as this is the first release of the practice guide, it's possible they may be planning to have a release two fairly soon based on preliminary feedback and they might choose to focus full translation efforts on an updated edition.

Kiron
Hello Kiron,

Yes, I agree that the translated versions of the Agile Guide seem to be some sort of drafts.
Indeed you can already find the spanish paperback version on presale in Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Spanish-Pr...dp/1628254149). I am willing to bet that the printed versions of the translated guides will be on par with the English version.

Nevertheless, it bothers me a bit that these translated versions are out there as finished products when in fact they are not. The only finished product is the English version. It would bother me quite a bit more if I had to pay for downloading the translated versions as they are.

Mauricio
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Najam Mumtaz Retired Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
I am sure PMI will address the translated versions shortcomings in later versions.
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Demetrius Williams Atlanta, Ga, United States
Hi Mauricio, I would provide this feedback directly to PMI. They may be working on the discrepancies; but still should be informed.

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