Kickstart the short code process for 2FA

[jimleroyer]

Description

As a product manager, I want to increase the sending rates for SMS within GCNotify, And its reliability, So that I can send faster, from a trusted short code number.

WHY are we building?

• Faster throughput
• More reliable
• More trust from users

WHAT are we building?

Making a request for short code. That does not cover integration, migration, etc...

VALUE created by our solution

• Experience with short codes.
• Faster throughput.
• More trust.

Acceptance Criteria

• [X] Sync with management / product on short code status.
• [x] Open an AWS ticket that request the short code. This should start AWS collaboration officially.
• [x] Bring a classification for generic usages for short codes within GCNotify. Done on a good will gesture toward AWS and telecoms. We know we want to start with 2FA.
• [ ] Update the ADR on short code.
• [x] Keep this ticket alive until we get the actual short code.

QA Steps

• [ ] Review the ADR updates.
• [ ] Review the usage classifications.

[jimleroyer]

• Provided short code updates to Josh yesterday.
• I will open the AWS ticket to request a short code today.

[yaelberger-commits]

Yael connected with Wendy on partnerships and we will reach out to ESDC to try and learn from their experience with a short code

[jimleroyer]

Jimmy to create the AWS ticket today.

[yaelberger-commits]

Wendy connected us with a contact at CRA to discuss their short code. Yael will respond today

[sastels]

Will get the ticket in soon

[sastels]

Ticket to be submitted today

[jimleroyer]

I sent the AWS ticket some minutes ago. I will entertain the AWS replies for today. Our AWS representative is on vacation and have a back up, it might be more difficult for the ticket to get in touch with our SMS contact in AWS.

[jimleroyer]

AWS got back to us. Navpreet is back from vacation and looking into our request. Jimmy to reply back to ask for further clarifications on next steps.

[jimleroyer]

I sent a reply this morning on how to reach Navpreet for updates. Waiting on AWS.

[sastels]

Will check with Pierre Antoine and Navpreet.

[jimleroyer]

Pierre-Antoine contacted me saying that Navpreet needs our request application document. On my end, I am thinking 2 different applications, one for 2FA authentication and one for a generic use. I started to look closely into the documentation txt.ca to dig further into the constraints. Also, thinking of communicating directly with the txt.ca folks as they provide a phone number and email.

[jimleroyer]

I am doing the 2FA application request for now; to follow up with the generic one. Sync with Yael to communicate with txt.ca directly.

[jimleroyer]

My goal is to complete 2FA app request for today.

[jimleroyer]

The request for the 2FA is written, except for the volume data that I need to query. Today, I will do the generic application one.

[ben851]

Request document is ready to go. Jimmy to speak with Pierre Antoinne and will see if a meeting can be scheduled

[jimleroyer]

Blazer query that contains estimated number of 2FA SMS max per minute for given days. This contains a list of service IDs that has 2FA authentication (email or SMS -- but the query itself restricts to SMS): http://localhost:1338/queries/136-support-throughput-send-rate-sms-2fa?start_time=2023-07-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&end_time=2023-10-02T23%3A59%3A59Z

Results: Private Zenhub Image

The 2A short code request document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h65ekLt_CLyQs4uqvNqTch0071afC0iNYvUukU1-s0I/edit

[jimleroyer]

I spoke with our AWS TAM about the provided document and I add one more estimate on messages volume for a monthly basis.

[jimleroyer]

I provided a more recent version of the document yesterday to our AWS TAM: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h65ekLt_CLyQs4uqvNqTch0071afC0iNYvUukU1-s0I/edit

I also had a new a new Blazer query to get monthly volume of the 2FA related sent SMS: http://localhost:1338/queries/138-support-total-send-rate-sms-2fa?start_time=2023-07-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&end_time=2023-10-10T23%3A59%3A59Z

[sastels]

waiting for AWS feedback

[jimleroyer]

I contacted our AWS TAM 2 days ago. He said he contacted the short code team and they didn't reply back.

[ben851]

No update from AWS. Jimmy to follow up...

[jimleroyer]

Navpreet a repris le dossier pour discussion a l’interne et escalade selon les dernieres informations (avant-hier)

[jimleroyer]

From PA:

J’ai vu passer un message de navpreet en date du 25 octobre, en discussion avec les aggregateurs. pour voir si il y a un bloquant dans la demande

[sastels]

Might contact txt.ca folks directly (Jimmy, Yael, Melissa, et. al.)

[jimleroyer]

I will have an AWS cadence meeting and I will raise the short code question in there. I have meeting with Yael on Wednesday about meeting with the txt.ca folks.

[ben851]

Jimmy has met with Yael to plan the next steps.

[jimleroyer]

We received an email yesterday from AWS on the ticket that requests us to fill in another short code request document. I am confused about this and I will ask about it.

[jimleroyer]

I replied back to the tickets from AWS that ask us to refill the initial request. They said they will look into it (with another canned response).

[sastels]

reviewing and providing the data they now require

[ben851]

Max sent a mean message to AWS TAM's a meeting will happen soon to discuss requirements

[jimleroyer]

New document is almost filled, we just need the SMS replies to be set: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p_38ZHvfh0pK3Zy3DI7-Ck20mMQwfoAs/edit

I will ask for a review from @yaelberger-commits and Melissa.

[jimleroyer]

I did finish the short code document. I got plenty of comments on the document by PM and policies. Meeting today with everyone to explain history and get commitment from everyone on chosen strategy.

[ben851]

Received a reply from AWS yesterday, and Jimmy met with support in AWS cadence meeting. We need to pay $$ to proceed. Jimmy is seeking the approval form Ioana for the short code costs.

[ben851]

Leanne approved the costing. AWS has been notified that we are approved, and the request has been sent to the aggregators.

Lots of intermediaries between us and the telecoms...

[ben851]

Waiting on Telecoms/Aggregators.

[jimleroyer]

I had conversations yesterday with Melissa and Ioana to find contact's email for telecoms, for our second approach to speak with said telecoms.

[jimleroyer]

We had a response from the aggregators. They want to know about the opt-in process. I forwarded the questions to the team internally. Policy looked into it and is currently determining a proper response to this.

[ben851]

AWS sent a message saying that the downstream providers submitted the request to the CTA, it will be reviewed January 15.

[ben851]

We are also trying to set up a meeting with the txt.ca team

[jimleroyer]

Meeting next Monday with the txt.ca team.

[jimleroyer]

We got the short code yesterday by end of day! 🕺💃🎶

[jimleroyer]

Jimmy to update the existing ADR on short code acquisition and kick off a new one on integration.

[jimleroyer]

We met with the CWTA representative yesterday. It went pretty well as she understands our cases and think we could get an exception, given we are gov and depending our guidelines and safety measures. Next steps:

1- Send to the CWTA representative the name of our AWS TAM. 2- Send to the CWTA representative previous reasoning for short code denials from the CWTA.

[jimleroyer]

Considering this one done as we did acquire a short code! and I opened another ticket to try to migrate our new short code into a generic one #278

[ben851]

Keeping this in review to track updating the ADR

[jimleroyer]

Updates on the short code ADR ready for review: https://github.com/cds-snc/notification-adr/pull/55/files

[ben851]

@ben851 to review this morning

[jimleroyer]

The ADR changes for the short code has been reviewed by Yael and Ben. This has now been merged. It's ready to be moved to done by the kanban master of the universe.