TCCC Syllabus

The syllabus below refers to exams based on TYPO3 v10 LTS.

The objective will test you on general knowledge about TYPO3. You should read the information on typo3.org, especially The Project section with its subpages.

You also should have a good understanding of the TYPO3 Extension Repository with its functionality.

Furthermore, you should have an overview where to get support and get in touch with the community. The Community Support section is a good place to get informed.

For a proper consultation with your customers, it's important to speak the same language. Therefore it's essential to use the correct terminology when explaining something or discuss things with your developers.

And of course, it's essential that you know the usage of TYPO3 to explain them to editors and decision makers.

Possible exam topics include: 

  • The TYPO3 backend and backend terminology
  • The basic editor features
  • Knowing, what TypoScript can do
  • Publication workflow basics
  • Multilanguage setup basics

TYPO3 is a powerful system with a broad range of possible use cases—however, it is not the jack of all trades. Its strength is content-rich websites created by trained editors; things like a community focused on users and their interactions might be better done with a software specialized on that purpose.

This exam objective highlights the use cases where TYPO3 shines and offers some advice on ways to circumvent the limitations, e.g. by integrating with third-party systems. It does not require detailed knowledge about each integration technology, but you should have a sound understanding e.g. of the differences between using an external API and synchronizing database rows.

This objective has a very broad focus, probably the most extensive of the whole exam, and will require you to know about the typical use cases of TYPO3 and widely used integrations with external systems. Case studies on typo3.org or the websites of the major TYPO3 agencies might be a good starting point to get an impression here.

Possible exam topics include: 

  • Dealing with requirements for things like a blog, shop, etc. in a TYPO3 website
  • Ways for integrating a third-party system with TYPO3
  • Migrating content between TYPO3 instances
  • More advanced backend features of TYPO3
  • Staging and publishing content on a TYPO3 website

This objective aims to test your understanding of the general versioning policy and the TYPO3 Core development cycle. You should be able to give clients clear advice on when to use what version and also explain to them why they won’t be able to run their TYPO3 website for ten years without any form of upgrade.

The objective focuses not only on TYPO3 itself but also on the surrounding ecosystem, especially PHP, the runtime environment of TYPO3.

Possible exam topics include:

  • The development cycle of an LTS version
  • The lifespan and lifecycle of an LTS version
  • When to start new projects on a non-LTS sprint release
  • How to cope with old client projects that run on unsupported versions
  • How to predict which features will end up in a new TYPO3 version

An important topic about consulting is a profound overview over administrative tasks and possibilities and also over support issues. As a consultant, you do not necessarly need in-deep knowledge, but a quite good overview of best practices and possible solutions.

To implement those solutions is a task for the integrators and developers in your project team. You as a consultant should be able to advise the customer about the do's and don't's - and of course, you should have some good answers for frequently asked customer issues.

Possible exam topics include: 

  • Basic backend user right management
  • Basic TYPO3 administration needs

Software development is a complex process, especially in quickly changing environments like the web. Technologies evolve rapidly, leaving developers in a constant need to learn new stuff. Additionally, software is a very abstract thing that cannot easily be understood in its details without knowledge of the underlying technology. These factors make software development hard to figure out for "outsiders," like many clients and business-focused people.

This objective aims to give you a very general understanding of modern software development processes, tools, and technologies. You don't have to become a professional developer to be able to pass this part of the exam, but you should have an idea of how your developers are working (or should be working) and how that way of working benefits not only your developers but also your client and your project.

Programming questions are not part of this objective. You will, however, need to understand tools like Git, Composer, and deployment tools—what are they good for and how do your developers use them.

Possible exam topics include:

  • Modern deployment workflows
  • The proper versioning of a projectthe advantages and disadvantages of integrating third-party software (TYPO3 extensions, PHP libraries) in your project
  • Managing the external dependencies of a project with software tools
  • How to incorporate a client into the development process
  • The best ways of upgrading an old project

TYPO3 is a powerful Content Management System, but of course, in almost every project you may want to add some extra functionality. TYPO3 has a large extension base for many needs, and most of them are available as open source, too.

As a consultant, you have to know about the possibilities and the limitations of the TYPO3 core system, and you have to know the most common extensions. 

Possible exam topics include:

  • Extension basics
  • Frameworks for TYPO3 extensions, MVC pattern basics
  • System extensions
  • News extensions and structured content
  • Speaking-URL extensions
  • Forms:  form extensions and core functionalities
  • TER functionalities

This objective is a smaller one, but the underlying topic will become more important in the future, so it certainly won’t harm you to dig a little deeper into it.

Possible exam topics include:

  • Differences between the built-in search engine of TYPO3 and external solutions like Solr, Elasticsearch and others
  • System requirements for solutions like Solr, Elasticsearch and others

This objective focuses on the more complex setups, e.g. with multiple servers rendering the website, a content delivery network  (CDN) for faster delivery or external services like a Solr search engine or a CRM that connect to TYPO3.

This part is important for you as a consultant as the client’s needs will guide the choice of server setup your DevOps and operations people will make. The setup has to look entirely different if the site is delivered worldwide than when it is focused on a few countries on the same continent.

Possible exam topics include:

  • Required services and packages for running TYPO3
  • Highly available TYPO3 setups
  • How to deliver a website in a fast manner worldwide
  • Third-party integration concepts via API
  • Webservices, SOAP, REST
     

One important aspect of your work as a consultant will also be to raise your customer's awareness of the topic. They may not consider their website’s security at risk, or might see a hack as some negligible disturbance — but for their brand image, it might have grave consequences if they lose customer data in a hack.

Possible exam topics include:

  • Securing a TYPO3 installation
  • How to make sure third-party code is secure
  • What to do when finding a security vulnerability
  • How to deal with a hacked website

Did you know? TYPO3 is the only open source content management system which comes with a vendor warranty. The TYPO3 GmbH offers a full range of various SLAs to serve you and your customers. 

Also, the TYPO3 GmbH offers an extended long term support (ELTS).  The ELTS service extends the community long term support.

Make sure you know your way around both, SLAs and ELTS to perform in your TCCC exam!

As a consultant knowing your way around licensing issues (at least roughly - in the end, we do not ask you to become a lawyer) is essential. You need to know which license applies to TYPO3 and which indications this has for your and your customer's business.

Also, you should be aware of copyright and trademark infringement 101, not like in knowing the laws but more like knowing when you have to pay attention and get informed or get advice from your lawyer.
 

Agile software development leads to more customer satisfaction and higher quality of the work and sustainable results. It has proven valuable and superior, not only in the context of larger projects.

Hence, the basics of agile software development are one of the more significant objectives within the TCCC exam.

For your preparation, you should have at least a base knowledge of agile software development and its concepts. Study the Scrum Guide and software development with Kanban. Have a closer look at the Agile Manifesto and the twelve principles behind it.

Possible exam topics include:

  • Manifesto for Agile Software Development
  • Scrum framework in general
  • Kanban, WIP, Kaizen

Frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, and even waterfall-based frameworks are just this: frameworks.
  
We need to fill them with content, techniques, and know-how. If you are a Product Owner or a Project Manager, then Requirements Engineering (RE) is essential for you.

Requirements Engineering consists of:

  • Stakeholder Management,
  • Requirements Elicitation,
  • Requirements Documentation,
  • and Requirements Management.

This new objective will be introduced to exams by 1st January 2021.

For the consultant, SEO is an important objective. Not only for the positioning in search engine results, the knowledge is important, but also regarding the accessible presentation of web content according to the WCAG. Therefore, basic knowledge in search engine optimization is expected in the exam.

In addition, a certified consultant is expected to know what needs to be taken into account in content migrations and website relaunches with regard to search engine optimization.