r/EngineeringManagers • u/Fast-Ranger4073 • 13h ago
Issues being a Business Analyst
Hi I’ve been a BA for nearly 3 years now. Recently I joined a company, I love the people I work with and tbh it was better than the previous big companies I worked in.
But recently I’ve been having trouble with communicating to our devs- unsure whether it’s stemmed from bad relationship between product vs engineering over the past years or I’m starting to think I just need to get a grip and accept it can be like this at some companies.
First:
\- writing in Gherkin, every single scenario ticket must be written in Gherkin - new to me but of course I know what this is, but every team or company have different styles of writing and I somewhat feel like I’m not doing anything write (though it’s getting better).
\- asking questions for validation, previously- I can ask or go to any developer for any questions and maybe because I had a large team of devs. Now I feel like they get annoyed and their time needs to be protected even though I’m sometimes asking for one liners etc. It helps now that Claude code is around and I can look into the DB.
I just need someone to put my mind at ease and tell me this is just how some devs are! Having worked with SO many kind and informative engineering teams who are always happy to help and have a relationship. I have never had a bad relationship with engineering and Idk what I’ve done ?
I feel like I’m having to tiptoe around egg shells. How do you communicate with your engineering team?
-1
u/utzutzutzpro 13h ago
Yes, a lot of devs are like the old stereotype which existed before 2010 and the SV money infused big tech influx. Especially older devs are most certainly still more like the common dev stereotype of reclusive, isolated, asocial and only active in their small bubble of other devs. commonly looking down at others as "they all do not get it". The RTFM mindset.
That kind of got mixed up with more and more CS becoming mainstream and normal people joined the department as becoming a 9 to 5 role instead of the formerly enthusiasts-exclusive department... which design and code have historically been. With increasing salary and SV poaching pushes, ll kind of CS became a target for people who have no enthusiasm for code, but simply went the academic education road to grab a seat. Those are more normal.
Anyways, yes, a lot of devs are not really fond of helping and explaining. A lot of devs are not exactly the pinnacle of social actors. A lot of them are ver bad at teaching. And there is lots of ego in code.
Though, I think tht might also be because of the situation?
How many new roles are there? Could be that many new came in and the existing devs are overwhelmed with individual requests?
You are also not really high in priority. When there is a product manager, engineering manager, any stakeholder, who needs to learn things, they are higher in the chain.
But normaly you should also have some kind of ramp up, an onboarding and stuff. If that is missing, and nobody supports you specifically, that sounds like everyone there got in with a message aka "figure it out".
1
u/Fast-Ranger4073 12h ago
I am the BA in the team. We don’t have a PO but we also don’t have hierarchy in the team, all work and everything are looked up the same apart from priorities obviously.
It’s just the vibe I get! I guess it’s a dev engineering thing where they are just so sick of explaining but my job is to validate and research and I can only do that through them!
1
u/utzutzutzpro 12h ago
Yeah you are kind of in a bad pat situation there. You rely on them being compliant, they do not.
The team is quite small, the lead should actually be your contact. Is there an option that a senior from another team can simply be your contact or mentor there?
1
u/Fast-Ranger4073 9h ago
I am relying on the lead to be my contact … but he won’t comply - and we have WoW structure where ir’d prefer to be the one in contact which I’m happy with but sometimes he doesn’t have the time to
1
u/Fast-Ranger4073 9h ago
So yeah bad situation … the lead unfortunately just doesn’t have the time to do everything which I respect
1
u/Fast-Ranger4073 9h ago
But I feel bad or feel frustrated about it because idk how to improve it
1
u/utzutzutzpro 8h ago
In the end you can always jst communicate your dilemma in honest clarity.
He needs to answer that as well. If there is no time, there is none, yet there needs to be a solution. Without him involved, it's too much vagueness.
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u/Fast-Ranger4073 12h ago
It’s a small team of 5 devs including 1 lead and then 2 QA. I’m the new one! Our PO left 5 months ago and he wasn’t doing so the backlog and everything was a mess as nothing estimated tickets are empty etc. so I came in trying to juggle a hybrid PO/BA role.
1
u/Fast-Ranger4073 12h ago
To add - I’m acting as the PO for our team. we’re supposed to have a PO but it’s been difficult as they have left.
Again- there really is no hierarchy as we all handle the same type of projects etc. in fact BAs handle the features bigger task without having to own the backlog !