If you are software exclusive in your department, agile development can really help you localize the system. There are several ways to specifically incorporate Agile into this project:

First, get superior level buy-in prior to beginning these changes! Preaching Agile and living Agile are two different things, and sometimes management’s “overall” view of the business forgets to take the day-to-day needs into account. Getting management support up front will ensure a better success rate of using “agile” in this project.

Second, break the project timeline down in to iterations. David mentions them above, and they are quite useful. Take a look at the timeframe you are being given to complete the project. Determine if it is feasible to complete an entire project in the given amount of time. If it is, gather your team and decide how you want to break the deliverables up into 2-3 week sessions. Write out what are included in the iterations and post them on a board that is public, so everyone is always able to see it, including management who need to understand what goes in to making the overall project happen. During those iterations, the team is solely focused on that specific part of the software. This is why managerial buy-in is important up front. Keeping the team dedicated can be hard in the realities of the business world. Having a champion in your manager makes it easier to pushback on requests and forces executives to prioritize, versus say “just get it done.” Typically, software iterations are broken down by functionality or, in the case of localizing, languages. If you are localizing the software into just a few languages, it may be easier to assign each language team with completing the functionality simultaneously.

Lastly, you need to set up daily meetings/conference calls with the key team members. Spend 5 minutes tops asking two questions:

1) Where are you at in the project?
2) What, if anything, is acting as a roadblock?

As the leader of the group, you are accountable for getting the roadblocks removed (much easier if you have managerial buy-in prior to starting the project).

I recommend in-person meetings, as a group if possible. Keep them short. The team needs to have time to work on the iteration to ensure completion. If you find the iteration is going to be too short, thesse meetings give you fair warning and a chance to approach management with either a) change in timeline, or b) request for additional resources/reduced roadblocks.

These are a few things your department can do on a long-term basis to move in an “Agile” direction. I agree with David that the actual translation duties are more difficult to work with in an Agile way.

I hope this helps, Hans