Planning Your Internationalization Project

Steve Billings - Global 360

Intended Audience: Managers, Systems Analysts, Project Managers
Session Level: Beginner, Intermediate

This presentation is for software development managers and project managers who need to scope or plan an internationalization project. It helps them answer the following questions about the engineering work required to prepare their software for one or more new international markets:

The talk maps out a process for determining project scope (cost and time), and developing a project plan. The process consists of four phases:

  1. Requirements Specification: Defining how the software must function for the new markets.
  2. Current State Analysis: Determining the current state of the software with respect to the relevant technical characteristics.
  3. Architecture and Design: Planning the architecture and design changes on which the new functionality will be built.
  4. Project Planning: Generating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), schedule, and resource plan.

This process offers the following benefits to project planners: