The ISO Standards Behind It All: ISO 17100, ISO 18587 & ISO 5060

iso # Why Do ISO Standards Matter in Translation?

Q. Are there actually ISO standards for the translation industry? I've never heard of them.

A. Yes — and they matter more than ever. Translation quality is inherently intangible: clients can't easily inspect it the way they can inspect a manufactured part. ISO standards solve this by creating an objective, internationally recognized framework for answering: Does this LSP have the right processes? Are they handling MT output professionally? And are they evaluating quality in a structured, defensible way?

There are three standards every localization professional should know:

Standard	Published	Type	Core Question
ISO 17100	2015	Requirements (certifiable)	Are the translation service processes correct?
ISO 18587	2017	Requirements (certifiable)	Is the MTPE workflow properly managed?
ISO 5060	2024	Guidance (not certifiable)	Is the translation output evaluated rigorously?

Together, these three standards form a comprehensive quality management system covering the beginning (ISO 17100), middle (ISO 18587), and end (ISO 5060) of a translation project lifecycle.

ISO 17100:2015 — Translation Services: Requirements

Q. What is ISO 17100, and what does it actually require?

A. ISO 17100:2015 defines the requirements for the core processes, resources, and other aspects necessary for delivering quality translation services. Think of it as the operating manual for a professional translation company — it specifies not just that translations must be good, but how the entire production workflow must be organized to ensure that.

ISO 17100 replaced the previous European standard EN 15038 (2006) and is reviewed every five years. It covers four key areas:

Area	What ISO 17100 Requires
Resources	Defined competency and qualification requirements for translators, revisers, and project managers. Translators must hold documented evidence of: a degree in translation/linguistics, OR an unrelated degree plus 2+ years of full-time translation experience, OR 5+ years of full-time experience.
Pre-Production	Formalized quoting, scoping, and agreement processes. Project parameters must be defined before work begins — language pair, intended use, deadline, format, and special requirements.
Production	A mandated four-step workflow: (1) Translation by a qualified translator, (2) Translator self-review, (3) Independent revision by a second qualified professional, (4) Final verification before delivery. Independent revision is the cornerstone of ISO 17100.
Post-Production	Documented project closure, client feedback handling, traceability of assignments, and retention of evidence of translator and reviser qualifications.

Important limitation: ISO 17100 explicitly excludes machine translation output and post-editing workflows from its scope. If your service involves AI-MT + MTPE, you need ISO 18587 in addition.**Q. Is ISO 17100 certification required, or just nice to have?

A. It is not legally mandatory in most markets, but it carries significant commercial weight — especially when pursuing enterprise or regulated-industry clients.

Scenario	ISO 17100 Matters Because...
Bidding for EU or European enterprise clients	Many RFPs explicitly list ISO 17100 as a qualification requirement
Legal, medical, or financial translation	Regulated industries use ISO certification to evaluate LSP risk
Government or public sector tenders	Public procurement often requires documented QMS evidence
Differentiating from freelance aggregators	Certification proves your process, not just your output

ISO 18587:2017 — Post-Editing of Machine Translation: Requirements

Q. Why was ISO 18587 created if ISO 17100 already existed?

A. When ISO 17100 was published in 2015, machine translation was still a fringe workflow. By 2017, neural MT was transforming the industry and AI-MT + MTPE was becoming mainstream. ISO 17100 explicitly excluded MT post-editing — so a dedicated standard was needed.

ISO 18587 governs what happens after the AI produces a translation: how it must be reviewed, corrected, and validated by qualified human linguists to meet production quality standards.

Q. What exactly does ISO 18587 require?

A. ISO 18587 covers three major areas:

1. Pre-Production Assessment

Before accepting an MTPE project, the LSP must evaluate: whether the source content is suitable for machine translation (content type, domain, terminology density), which MT engine is appropriate for the language pair and content, and whether the MT output quality is sufficient to be post-edited efficiently.

2. The MTPE Production Process

ISO 18587 distinguishes two levels of post-editing:

PE Level	Objective	Best For
Full Post-Editing (Full PE)	Output reaches human translation quality — grammatically correct, accurate, fluent, appropriately localized	Legal, medical, marketing, any high-visibility content
Light Post-Editing (Light PE)	Output is comprehensible and fit for purpose — not necessarily publication-ready	Internal use, repetitive technical content, rapid turnaround with controlled terminology

3. Post-Editor Competence Requirements

ISO 18587 is explicit that a post-editor is not simply a bilingual person correcting machine output. Post-editors must demonstrate:

Competence Area	What It Means in Practice
Translation competence	Full professional translation ability in the relevant language pair
Linguistic & textual competence	Command of grammar, style, and discourse conventions in both source and target
Research competence	Ability to verify terminology, domain knowledge, and factual content
Cultural competence	Understanding of both source and target culture for appropriate adaptation
Technical competence	Proficiency with CAT tools, TM systems, and MT platforms
Domain / subject-matter competence	Sufficient expertise in the domain being post-edited (medical, legal, technical, etc.)
MT literacy	Familiarity with MT technology and the characteristic error patterns of MT output

Key insight: ISO 18587 does not regulate the AI tool itself. It governs the human process applied to the AI output. The standard's premise is that MT is a production input, and human expertise is what turns that input into a deliverable.

ISO 5060:2024 — Evaluation of Translation Output: General Guidance

Q. What is ISO 5060, and how does it relate to MQM?

A. ISO 5060:2024 is the international standard for evaluating translation quality — whether the translation was produced by a human, a machine, or a combination of both. It was developed by ISO Technical Committee TC37/SC5 with input from over 30 countries, and experts from the MQM framework were actively involved in its creation.

The relationship between ISO 5060 and MQM is best understood as complementary:

	ISO 5060	MQM Framework
Nature	International standard (ISO authority)	Industry framework (community-driven, open)
Error typology	7 main categories, harmonized with MQM Level 1	10 main categories with extensive sub-types
Certifiable?	No — guidance standard only	No — framework, not a standard
Update cycle	Every 5 years (ISO process)	Dynamic, updated more frequently
Best used for	Establishing evaluation policy; client communication	Hands-on implementation; scorecards; QA tooling

In practice: use MQM for day-to-day quality evaluation workflows and scorecards, and reference ISO 5060 when articulating your evaluation methodology to clients or in formal QA documentation.

Q. What are ISO 5060's error categories? Are they the same as MQM's 10?

A. ISO 5060 uses 7 top-level categories, which map closely to MQM's 10 but with some consolidation:

ISO 5060 Category (7)	Corresponding MQM Categories
Accuracy	Accuracy (Mistranslation, Omission, Addition, Untranslated, Numbers)
Fluency	Linguistic Conventions + parts of Style & Fluency
Terminology	Terminology (Glossary, Industry-standard, Consistency)
Locale Conventions	Locale Conventions
Style	Style & Fluency (Naturalness, Tone/Register)
Compliance	Compliance (Style Guide, Project Instructions)
Design and Markup	Format & Non-Translatables (Tags, Length, Layout)

Like MQM, ISO 5060 classifies errors by severity (Critical, Major, Minor) and uses a scoring model to generate a quality rating and pass/fail outcome for each evaluated sample.

Q. ISO 5060 says it's a guidance standard, not a requirements standard. What's the practical difference?

Aspect	Requirements Standard (ISO 17100, ISO 18587)	Guidance Standard (ISO 5060)
Can be certified?	Yes — third-party auditors verify conformance	No — cannot be audited for certification
Language	Uses 'shall' (mandatory)	Uses 'should' (recommended)
Enforcement	Non-conformance = certification failure	No enforcement mechanism
How to use it	'We are ISO 17100 certified'	'Our evaluation methodology is based on ISO 5060'
Business value	Proves process compliance	Demonstrates methodological rigor

How the Three Standards Work Together

Q. Can you show how all three standards connect across a single translation project?

A. Here is how the three standards map to the stages of a typical AI-MT localization project:

Project Stage	Standard Applied	What It Ensures
Project intake & scoping	ISO 17100	Formalized agreement; project parameters defined upfront
Translator/PM qualification	ISO 17100	Documented competency evidence on file
MT suitability assessment	ISO 18587	Content screened before feeding to MT engine
AI-MT production + post-editing	ISO 18587	Qualified post-editors; full or light PE level defined
Independent revision	ISO 17100	Second qualified professional reviews the PE output
Quality evaluation & scoring	ISO 5060 + MQM	Structured error taxonomy; severity-weighted score; pass/fail
Client QA report delivery	ISO 5060 + MQM	Objective, documented evidence of quality level achieved

Q. As an LSP, do we actually need all three? What's the business case?

A. The answer depends on where you want to compete — but here is the strategic view:

Certification / Adoption	When It Pays Off	Investment Level
ISO 17100 Certification	Targeting EU/North American enterprise clients; legal, medical, financial verticals; government tenders	High — requires QMS documentation, staff training, third-party audit
ISO 18587 Certification	AI-MT + MTPE as a core service; tech, e-commerce, gaming clients with volume demands	Medium — builds on ISO 17100 infrastructure
ISO 5060-based Evaluation	Offering QA-as-a-service; producing quality scorecards for clients; differentiating from 'raw MT' providers	Low — framework adoption, no audit required

The most powerful combination for an AI-era LSP: ISO 17100 + ISO 18587 certification to prove your process, plus ISO 5060 / MQM-based quality reporting to prove your output. This gives you a complete, defensible answer to any client asking 'How do I know your AI-MT translation is actually good?'