As noted, MQM is a methodology for analytic Translation Quality Evaluation (TQE). The value of MQM is that it provides a standardized way to generate structured information about the quality of translated content. MQM assists in the following:
- Measuring the quality of a translation product: MQM supports identification of quality issues both at the overall text level and with regard to specific errors. This helps implementers measure whether and to what extent quality requirements have been met and allows implementers to decide whether to accept, revise, or reject translation products.
- Identifying specific errors in translated content that need to be corrected: MQM provides a way to determine the impact of the detected issues on the translation product’s suitability for its intended purpose (so called severity levels) and thereby to decide which issues must be corrected.
- Improving communication concerning expectations, quality requirements and performance: By reducing subjectivity and ambiguity, the standardized MQM approach greatly increases the efficiency of cooperation between the stakeholders involved. It is universally applicable, so it ensures comparability across products, content types and production environments.
- Enabling data-driven quality management: The structured evaluation data drives systematic and continuous quality improvement beyond the evaluation of any specific translation product. Through error analysis and root cause analysis, it can also help implementers improve source content and the translation process, including the translation resources used.