NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2012
Japanese Design Document Creation Assistance
Opportunities to create documents in foreign languages have increased, along with the acceleration in the global expansion of
companies. Offshore development in the system development field has been particularly active in China, with high expectations for
Chinese engineers to create Japanese documents. However, there are various issues involved, such as shortening creation time and
improving document quality. At NTT DATA, we developed an Example Sentence Search function and Japanese Editing function,
whereby the former promotes understanding of Japanese sentence usage and the latter points out the errors. Through these advancements, we aim to assist the creation of Japanese specification documents in a global development organization.
Japanese Specification Document Creation Assis-
incorrect Japanese expressions are preliminarily verified before
tance
checking the content.
In 2011, the proportion of offshore development orders by
At NTT DATA, we are developing technologies to assist the
NTT DATA was 7.5%. In 2012, this number increased to 10%.
creation of Japanese specification documents, especially tar-
Until now, Japanese documents created via offshore develop-
geted for the Chinese engineers, as part of our initiatives to
ment mainly consisted of those involving detailed implementa-
eliminate the issues that arise in offshore development. Con-
tion of programs, such as design specification documents and
cretely speaking, we are developing an Example Sentence
test items tables; going forward, we expect that offshore de-
Search and Japanese Editing functions, which offer an assis-
velopment will be leveraged in creation of documents for more
tance tool for understanding the usage of unique Japanese
general system configuration, like requirement definition doc-
grammar and functions to automatically check expressions.
uments. Thus, system development experts, for whom Japanese
Current State of Development Projects
is not a native language, are experiencing on an upward trend
in opportunities to create documents in Japanese.
Nonetheless, the current state of the Japanese proficiency of
such offshore experts is far from being perfect. Many of these
engineers receive their Japanese education only after employment, and although various assistance methods have been implemented on-site, issues abound, such as the creation of documents taking too much time or frequent errors being made in
language expressions.
One example of a case where these issues are apparent is
when an engineer is unsure of grammar rules that are unique to
the Japanese language, such as particles and verb conjugations,
which are not found in their native languages. When this occurs,
they need to spend time checking grammar books or contacting
in-house Japanese experts for help. In this scenario, the time
spent in searching the appropriate section in the grammar book,
or waiting for an answer from the Japanese expert, becomes an
obstruction to a timely creation of documents.
In terms of checking whether the expressions are appropriate,
review by leaders and members are carried out prior to contacting the Japan-side or delivering the document to them.
During this process, a visual check of expressions and contents
is done. However, it is more efficient during this process that
Out of the Japanese document errors made by Chinese engineers in development projects, 60% is from particles, verb
conjugations and katakana, which do not exist in Chinese.
Table 1: Examples of Errors in Japanese
Verb conjugations
Process after the button is pressing 1
Omission of particles Output to log and start processing 2
More specifically, most errors consist of mistaken verb tenses and excessive omission of particles, as seen in the examples
of “verb conjugations” and “omission of particles” in Table 1. It
can be said that these errors are consequences of differences in
Japanese and Chinese grammar, such as the presence or absence of particles, verb conjugations, and verb tenses.
In addition, a common example of an error in the usage of
katakana 3 is to frequently write to “mesage” instead of “message.” It can be said that this is a consequence of being influenced by the original sound of the English word, without re1 The correct phrase would read, “Process after the button is
pressed,” but the example reads, “Process after the button is
pressing.”
2 The correct phrase would read, “Output to log and start the
processing,” but the example reads “Output to log and start
processing.”
3 Katakana is a type of character sets primarily used for
transcription of foreign language words into Japanese.
1
garding the difference between this and its equivalent in Japanese notation.
particles which are appropriate to each of their scenarios.
As seen in this example, it is possible to efficiently create
The Example Sentence Search function aims to provide as-
Japanese documents by utilizing the Example Sentence Search
sistance during document creation for such grammar and no-
function and thereby eliminating the need to check usage in
tations prone to error, and the Japanese Editing function
grammar books.
serves to provide assistance in the verification process after
Japanese Editing Function
document creation.
Example Sentence Search Function
Most of the sentences written by engineers are processing
logics to run programs. These engineers create Japanese docu-
Documents created by engineers are reviewed before submitting to the Japan-side. The essential purpose of the review is
to check the contents. However, when there are errors in Japanese expressions, those have to be revised as well.
ments, by excerpting nouns that are the processing objects and
The Japanese Editing function, in response, checks com-
verbs that are the processing method, from previously written
monly made errors, such as particles and katakana notations,
requirement definition documents. Thanks to this, the nouns
and automatically detects errors in Japanese. This automatic
and verbs which they use to construct these documents are very
inspection discovers non-standard usage of particles and kata-
clear. What require improvement in the creation of text are the
kana, based on statistical information from specification docu-
particles that connect the nouns and verbs, as well as the selec-
ment data, because much of the expressions used in specifica-
tion of verb usage.
tion documents are fixed and repetitive.
In response to this need, the Example Sentence Search func-
In terms of particles, the function not only checks if the stat-
tion finds example sentences from the collection of documents
ed particle is appropriate, but also confirms whether the parti-
with correct grammar created in the past, using the nouns and
cles are excessively omitted. Furthermore, in terms of checking
verbs as keywords. Engineers can use the results of this search
katakana, the function adopts a method in which phonetic sim-
as examples to assist them in the creation of documents. In
ilarity is taken into account, allowing it to detect errors, as well
addition, this function realizes the prioritized display of search
as propose possible answers and make the revision more effi-
results, by those that are most appropriate for selecting particle
cient.
or verb usage, choosing the sentences including the clause
In this way, the Japanese Editing function can be leveraged
where the inserted nouns or verbs are in a dependent relation-
to carry out a preliminary enumeration of mistaken Japanese
ship via the particles.
notations, and thereby realizes an improvement in document
quality.
Our Future Challenges
In our present society where globalization has become
widespread, it is expected that we will experience a “communication gap” greater in degree than ever before. Until now,
we have engaged in R&D centering on document creation
assistance, in response to the needs in communication via
Figure 1: Example of the Output of the
Example Sentence Search Function
documents in the global development structure. Moving forward, we advance application development, which leverages
solutions based on media analysis technologies, aimed at fur-
Figure 1 is an output example for searching “メッセージ
ther eliminating the communication gap through technologies
(message)” and “表示 (show) ” as the keywords. In this Figure,
such as translations tools to assist understanding and search
the way to use passive and active expressions is described, and
tools to utilize multilingual documents.
this helps in understanding the use of verb conjugations and
October 2012 Version
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