What does the SSO (Single Sign On) team do at CBC/SRC?

This post is part of a series on “What teams do at CBC”. In each blog post we are celebrating one of our amazing teams in Digital Strategy and Products at CBC and will shed light on the fantastic work they do. Teams will be sharing about how their work fulfills CBC’s mission and serves our Canadian audience. Team members will also talk about what it is like to be on their team and what they do for fun.

To join our teams at CBC, check out our current openings here.

Introducing Team SSO (Single Sign On)

• Karthic: Product Owner, 1+ year(s) at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Toronto
• Ashanti: Agile Team Lead, 4+ years at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Toronto
• Nicolas: IT Project Manager, 4 years at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Montréal
• Bruno: Sr. Solution Architect, 10+ years at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Montréal
• Linda: UX Designer, 10+ years at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Montréal
• Ricca: Sr. Developer (Quality Engineering), 1+ years at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Toronto
• Antoine: Sr. Backend Developer, 2 years at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Montréal
• Natalie: Sr. Developer, 5+ years at CBC/Radio-Canada, Based in Toronto

Q: What are the best things about being part of SSO (Single Sign On)?

• Karthic: The challenge and the mandate in front of us is the best thing about being a part of CBC/Radio-Canada. Single Sign On, in my view, is going to be that foundation that many other teams are going to rely upon for serving their customers better. The cross-functional and cross-cultural team makes it even sweeter.
• Ashanti: Our product focuses on two different audiences which we are trying to bring into one platform, so we are dealing with exciting challenges and learning new things every day. I enjoy working with a very unique, talented bunch of people that have different skill sets and styles of work. The opportunities to experiment, learn and grow from one another excites me. And someday we can be proud of the work we did to serve millions of Canadians.
• Nicolas: One of the goals of this project is to imagine a future that is always safer and easier for our users when it comes to authentication — it’s a major technological challenge for CBC/Radio-Canada and this multidisciplinary team.
• Bruno: I enjoy working with a cross-company, cross-functional team. We have different points of view, experiences and perspectives that add to the culture and success of the team.
• Linda: I enjoy working with CBC and its people.
• Ricca: Where team rapport is practiced and teamwork is displayed, supportive members make me perform better and encourage me to continuously try out new things.
• Antoine: It’s gratifying to work on a wide-reaching project that will be seen by all CBC/Radio-Canada users. It’s also exciting to work in the first cross-entreprise team between CBC and Radio-Canada.
• Natalie: The work is challenging and interesting and the team is lovely to work with — a really supportive bunch. And I get to practice my French.

Q: What does your team do?

Team SSO was formed as one of the first harmonized agile product teams to work across the English and French services of CBC/Radio-Canada in 2020. The Vision of Team SSO is to help Canadians easily authenticate and stay authenticated across all CBC (English Services) and SRC (French Services) products. Our cross-functional harmonized team owns the entire authentication suite and is in the process of building a standard experience for all customer-facing products of CBC and SRC.

This will help springboard data-driven personalization for the Canadian audience which will improve their engagement by offering what the audience likes. We work and plan our deliverables with other teams across CBC and SRC. Long term, our vision is to support both web and mobile authentication.

Q: How does your team’s work fit in overall with CBC’s mission and Canadian audience?

Team SSO plays a key role in helping CBC/SRC stay relevant to the Canadian audience and building trust with our users through creative solutions to help users authenticate and stay authenticated across multiple products in our portfolio. SSO will help deliver personalized content to users and take good Canadian content to the world.

Q: How does your team work together?

Our team’s philosophy is to share what you know, learn from each other and never let anyone on the team fail. We help each other to build our skills and grow so that we have a shared knowledge base, regardless of our role. We’re proof that you don’t have to work in one place to reach a goal together!

Q: What does a typical day look like for the team?

Since the inception of the team, we have worked remotely due to the pandemic, and a few of our team members are based in Montréal. But we stay connected daily, regardless of where we are. A typical day starts with a fresh coffee or a tea and making sure the kids are occupied if they are home. Then our day starts at 9:15am with our daily stand-up meeting where we set our daily goal and make sure everything is smooth and coordinated. We then have a technical huddle where anyone in need can discuss any technical hurdles/clarifications they have with the PO (Product Owner)/Architect/ATL (Agile Team Lead) to avoid any blockers. After that, we’re on to coding, testing and designing! One thing most of us cannot avoid is the many other meetings we have throughout the day. Regardless how busy we get, we don’t forget to crack a joke or chit chat through our team’s Slack channel during the day as this is a must to stay motivated and connected.

Q: What tools and technologies does your team use?

Git, Jira, Azure AD B2C, Azure Functions, Azure Pipelines, C#, React, Typescript, Figma, JavaScript, Postman and Cypress, amongst others.

Q: What are some recent exciting projects or products your team developed?

• We completed laying the foundation for a truly unified CBC/Radio-Canada authentication experience for users to login across CBC and SRC with one credential.
• Our SSO systems are 100% cloud-based! So they are highly secure and reliable. The cloud environment also makes it more cost-effective, easy to develop and maintain our code.

Q: What are some of the challenges your team faces?

• Because SSO works across CBC English Services and Radio-Canada French Services, we need to manage a lot of planning — inputs need to be collected from audience-facing product teams and stakeholders on both sides. We employ the RAPID model together with Agile mindsets to help respond to rapid changes.
• Sometimes the English/French language barrier is a challenge. However, as a team we go the extra mile to help each other by translating things for each other if there’s a need. Also, the team is offered English and French classes by CBC/SRC.
• Remote team meetings can sometimes be challenging — being in the same room can be more engaging and interactive.

Q: Is your team hiring?

We just hired two Senior Full Stack Developers and a Lead Developer. To join our other teams at CBC, check out our current openings here.

Q: What does your team do for fun?

Before we start every team meeting, someone tells a joke or shares a story from their day to make everyone smile. We use Slack during the day and share gifs and emojis when there have been achievements or even failures to encourage each other. We dress up for Halloween, Christmas and special occasions, and we play Scribble or Kahoot during our special social events.

Q: What is your favourite CBC/Radio-Canada TV or Radio show/s?

• Karthic: Kim’s Convenience and Marketplace
• Ashanti: Schitt’s Creek, Kim’s Convenience and Heartland (hands down)
• Nicolas: Annie Desrochers on Le 15•18 and Patrick Masbourian on Tout un Matin every day of the week
• Bruno: Schitt’s Creek
• Linda: L’épicerie, La facture, Someone Knows Something, Un nomade dans l’oreille and After Dark
• Ricca: Marketplace
• Antoine: Découverte
• Natalie: Someone Knows Something

To join our teams at CBC, check out our current openings here!