I’m a business analyst, and a big part of my job involves working with engineers and product managers to gather detailed, in-depth information. For reasons I don’t fully understand (though I have my theories), I often find that engineers, in particular, seem oddly reluctant to share the information I need. This makes the process more challenging than I’d like. Does anyone have tips or tricks for building trust with engineers to encourage them to share information more willingly and quickly?
EDIT: Here's a summary with more details for those who requested more info: I’m working on optimizing processes related to our in-house file ingestion system, which we’ve been piecing together over time to handle tasks it wasn’t originally designed for. The system works well enough now, but it’s still very much a MacGyver setup—duct tape and dental floss holding things together. We got through crunch time with it, but now the goal is to refine and smooth everything out into a process that’s efficient, clear, and easy for everyone to follow.
Part of this involves getting all the disparate systems and communication silos talking to each other in a unified way—JIRA is going to be the hub for that. My job is to make sure that the entire pipeline—from ticket creation, to file ingestion, to processing and output—is documented thoroughly (but not pedantically) and that all teams involved understand what’s required of them and why.
Where I’m running into challenges is in gathering the nitty-gritty technical details from engineers. I need to understand how their processes work today, how they’ve solved past issues, and what they think would make things better in an ideal world. But I think there’s some hesitation because they’re worried about “incriminating” themselves or having mistakes come back to haunt them.
I’ve tried to make it clear that I’m not interested in punishing anyone for past decisions or mistakes—on the contrary, I want to learn from them to create a better process moving forward. My goal is to collaborate and make their jobs easier, not harder, but I think building trust and comfort will take more time.
If anyone has strategies for improving communication with engineers—especially around getting them to open up about technical details without fear—I am all ears.
As an engineer, I hate having to repeat the same thing again and again so take notes and make sure you understand them.
Secondly know the product or project intimately relative to your level. For example if I work on the project and I know it from the code and infrastructure and everything else in addition to how it works for the end user then the least I expect is that the person asking the questions has used the software with a demo account on UAT or something so that my answers will not go over their heads. Knowing the product will also allow you to talk to clients better and you will know what it can and can't do.
I'm ok with someone if I see they are willing to make the effort regardless of their level, if someone is coming to me to do their work for them , then I lose my patience fast and will very soon be less helpful and prioritize my actual work over their bs.
Finally as I said we are often overworked and not looking to have more things to do. We are the ones that have to stay late to fix someone's mess or get called to patch an emergency zero day in some software used by the company on a weekend. In addition we support everyone else as without us there is no product and no jobs for the rest of you. We are at the bottom of the pyramid holding the rest up with the CEO being the prick at the top.
Finally dont just engage when you need something, get to know them and see if you can help them with something. Maybe a heads up about a project or client to avoid or some thing.
It is good that you want to bridge the gap and I wish more in your position would do so.