Mastering translation project management: what, when, and where

ABSTRACT

The paper presents the findings from a survey of 43 translation project managers (TPMs) in Lithuania, focusing on assessing Translation Project Management (TPM) competence. Utilizing a revised version of Plaza-Lara's (2022) TPM model, the study identifies the market's expectations regarding when TPM competencies should be acquired. The results reveal that the majority of skills and abilities, particularly those within ‘(Extra)linguistic,' ‘Psycho-psychological' and ‘Strategic' domains, are preferably acquired before entering the role, while ‘Translation project management' and ‘Instrumental' sub-competencies can be developed in a short time frame. Notably, attributes like language proficiency, effective communication and responsibility are universally acknowledged as pre-requisites. Skills attainable after a few months at work or training correspond closely with the academic syllabi of universities that have already included TPM in their curricula. This underscores a significant convergence between educational curricula and the prevailing demands of the job market that universities should look into to better equip graduates for diverse career opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• Translation project management
• TPM
• translation project managers
• competencies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For a thorough terminological debate on competence in Translation Studies see Quincy (2023, pp. 10–12).

2 The most recent - seventh - edition of the PMBOK® Guide was published by Project Management Institute in 2021.

3 Stakeholders, Team, Development approach and Life cycle, Planning, Project work, Delivery, Performance, Uncertainty and ambiguity (PMI, 2021)

4 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dalia Mankauskienė

Dalia Mankauskienė is an Assistant Professor in Translation and Interpreting Studies at Vilnius University. She obtained her PhD in Philology in 2018. Her research interests include interpreting studies, translation project management and translator and interpreter training.