SkillDisplay - Part III: An In-Depth Look at the Certification Creation Workflow

Thanks to Christina from SkillDisplay for sharing!

Topics covered in this series are:

• Part I: Content phase - Erasmus+

• Part II: The partners and their roles

• Part III: An in-depth look at the certification creation workflow

• Part IV: Presentation of the workshop results

Moving on to part 3, we now want to give you an overview of the TYPO3 certification workflow. We spent severals days in Hamburg in February 2018 for a dedicated TCCI workshop, held at the premises of F7 Media (thank you folks, you were awesome hosts).

This in-person collaboration - both in Hamburg as well as recently, in Düsseldorf for the TCCE - empowers the participants to improve the review on the first draft of the syllabus. Let’s first take a closer look at the whole picture before diving into the workshop details:

The following passage will show you how we will be working together when creating a certificate. This part might be interesting for you as a learner or a certifier. Do you remember the stamps?

The stamp system has the benefit that you can easily identify what we think is most interesting to you. There are stamps available for learners, educators, business persons and certifiers. Read our recent blogpost to find out more about them.

The new TYPO3 certification workflow was suggested by SkillDisplay and approved by both the TYPO3 Education Committee as well as the TYPO3 GmbH.
It is tailored to optimise the benefits that the SkillDisplay platform offers, while not making these steps mandatory for the process (the steps which are of added value are marked with a + below).

The workflow is designed as a template for actions to be performed relative to a TYPO3 Long Term Support (LTS) release.

The main steps are summarised as follows:

• Phase 1: First draft of the syllabus (LTS in development)
  The most important changes in the TYPO3 system are introduced by the TYPO3 GmbH. The education team creates a syllabus recommendation which is reviewed by the TYPO3 GmbH.

• Phase 2 (+): Workshop (LTS in development)
  After the certification syllabus is approved by both parties, SkillDisplay becomes the coordinator. We organise a workshop where TYPO3 experts split the syllabus into certain broad topics of interest - called “Domains”. Afterwards single skills are identified and connected by dependencies on each other. Every skill has a description and goals. It should be possible to get an overview of the topic it covers in about 10 minutes (learning and mastering it will take more time, of course). After creating a first draft of the formed SkillTree (which consists of said skills depending on each other in various forms), the single skills are refined. Skills descriptions and goals are optimised by adding officially recommended learning resources (links) and tags (with their domain name as well as other fitting tags). The education team creates new questions for the certification. After a review, they become part of the internal question pool.

• Phase 3: LTS feature freeze
  After the LTS feature freeze the syllabus will be compared to the actual state again. If changes are necessary, the syllabus will get an update which then has to be approved by both the TYPO3 GmbH and the TYPO3 Education Committee. If there are already existing skills for the proper SkillTree, they also have to be adapted and supplemented. In case of missing questions for the official certification, they are also extended in this phase. The phase is completed when the suggestion for the questions get their final version.

• Phase 4: LTS release
  Questions of the certification get confirmed in this phase. TYPO3 GmbH checks the finalised question pool of the TYPO3 Education Committee, clarifies open-ended questions and confirms the questions.

• Phase 5: one month after LTS release
  Now, the TYPO3 Education Committee transfers the questions to the certification tool. They are also responsible for the beta test phase for the official certificate. Here you can see a picture of the beta test of TCCE 8 LTS.

• Phase 6: two months after LTS release
  The last phase covers the release of the new certification questions / the new certification of the current LTS (Long Term Support).

At the moment TYPO3 is creating and updating the certificate and the SkillPaths (Editor, Integrator, Developer) for 8 LTS. The aim of the whole workflow is to shorten the time between releasing a new LTS version and updating the certification itself.

To avoid any confusion: After running through the newly updated TCCE 8 LTS SkillPath you will still need to take the official exam to become a certified editor. You can track, verify and display your TYPO3 skills and qualifications on the SkillDisplay plattform by clicking the corresponding SkillUp button. This way both you as well as others - e.g. potential business partners and employers - can see your strengths at a glance.