Internationalization Requirements

Definition

Internationalization Requirement

any configurability requirement that specifies a minimum required amount of the configurability quality subfactor internationalization

Objectives

The typical objectives of a internationalization requirement are to:

• Ensure that people from different nations can use the application or component.
• Ensure that the application or component supports national differences in:
  • Native languages, language idioms, spelling, and character sets.
  • Formats of contact information such as name, address, and phone number.
  • Currencies including real-time currency conversion.
  • Legal issues such as import/export laws, tariff and sales tax calculations, customs documentation, trademarks, and privacy laws.
  • Culture (e.g., use of inappropriate colors, symbols, or product names).

Measurements

Internationalization requirements are typically specified in terms of the following measurements:

• Number of countries with which it is consistent.
• Number of currencies with which it is consistent.
• Number of languages with which it is consistent.

Examples

The following are typical examples of internationalization requirements:

• “The application shall be internationalized to work properly in the following countries:
  • United States of America.
  • Canada.
  • United Kingdom.
  • Australia.
  • New Zealand.
  • Japan.”
• “The application shall be internationalized for the following native languages and dialects of the target countries:
  • English:
    • American.
    • Australian.
    • British.
  • French:
    • French
    • French Canadian.
  • Japanese:
    • Hiragana.
    • Katakana.
    • Kanji.”
• “The application shall use Unicode ISO-10646 to properly handle multibyte character sets (MBCS) for the official languages of the target countries.”
• “The application shall use target country and language conventions for:
  • Calendars (i.e., Western and Japan).
  • Date formatting (i.e., European and USA).
  • Time formatting (e.g., 12 hour vs. 24 hour clock).
  • Currency formatting (e.g., currency symbol, fractional currency, and number of digits).
  • Cultural norms (e.g., avoidance of specific colors, numbers, graphics, and words).
  • Line breaks and hyphenation.
  • Names (e.g., number, order, honorifics, and suffixes).
  • Numbers:
    • Chinese ideographic characters for numbers in financial documents.
    • National identity numbers (e.g., social security number).
  • Sorting of lists.
  • Legal issues such as:
    • Import/export laws.
    • Tariff and sales tax calculations.
    • Customs documentation.
    • Trademarks.
    • Privacy laws.
  • Text directions (e.g., left to right, right to left, top to bottom).”
• “Internationalization shall not require changes to executable software component including user interfaces.”

Guidelines

The following guidelines have been found to be useful when producing internationalization requirements:

• The scope of an internationalization requirement can be:
  • A business enterprise
  • An application
  • A component
  • A center
  • A document
• Internationalization is far more than merely translating the content and user interface of an application.
• Internationalization cannot easily be added to a local application after it has been developed and placed into production. Many mechanisms for implementing internationalization are best included from the beginning when they are much easier and less expensive to implement.
• Determine not only the current internationalization requirements but also those that will be needed in the foreseeable future.
• Remember than numerous countries contain sizable user groups that speak different languages (e.g., English and Spanish in the United States, English and French in Canada, and German, French, and Italian in Switzerland). Thus, internationalization should be based on an analysis of the relevant operational requirements and the results of the User Analysis task.
• Ensure that native speakers are used for the translation part of internationalization in order to avoid the classic problems of brand and product names that are inappropriate or offensive.