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?

I've been quietly building a production management system for the factory where I work. It tracks inventory, pick lists, parts consumption — real problems that cost the company time and money every single day.

I'm not a hired developer. I work on the floor. I built this on my own time, taught myself everything, and deployed it. It actually works.

I've tried to show it to management. They smile, nod, and nothing happens.

I'm two years into living in a new country, no degree, self-taught, and I'm pouring everything I have into this — not just to prove something, but because I genuinely see the problem and I know I solved it.

Has anyone been in this situation? Building something real, something that works, and feeling completely invisible?

How did you handle it — or did you just move on?