Globalization Testing

Globalization testing encompasses both internationalization testing and localization testing. Localization testing focuses on system details that must be modified for a particular location, region, or culture. These include language, appropriate idioms, currency formats, alphabetic sort order, left/right vs. right/left language display, date/time formats, and clip art and photograph appropriateness. The necessity of testing these is generally well understood. Terry Shidner points out that before localization testing is performed, the system must first undergo internationalization testing. This type of testing is important to verify the readiness of the system for the localization work. For example, has the system been implemented without embedded text strings? Has all text input, processing, and display been implemented with Unicode? If the system has not been developed with internationalization in mind, localization will be extremely difficult.