Incident Tech

1. Introduction

As globalization accelerates within the IT industry, the role of the Bridge System Engineer (Bridge SE) is becoming increasingly important. In waterfall-style development, Bridge SEs play a critical role in connecting overseas development centers with domestic stakeholders, helping to bridge gaps in language, culture, and technical understanding. Even in agile development, when engineers are based in overseas hubs, constant and effective communication becomes essential.

This article explains the skills and mindset required to become an excellent Bridge SE, as well as their responsibilities in agile development and in system operation and maintenance phases.

2. What Is a Bridge SE?

A Bridge SE acts as the liaison between Japanese clients or project managers (PMs) and overseas development teams (e.g., offshore centers). They are not merely translators of documents or interpreters of PM instructions—they combine technical literacy with project management capabilities to serve as a “bridge” between technology and communication.

Typical responsibilities include:

• Translating and supplementing requirements
• Reporting and coordinating development progress
• Performing quality checks and reviews
• Triage and response during issues
• Interacting with customers when necessary

Depending on the project structure, they may also handle incidents occurring in production systems. In these cases, they must gather and report information on the issue, impact, and system status promptly and clearly.

3. Skills Required to Become an Excellent Bridge SE

1. Technical Understanding

A Bridge SE may not always be a developer, but without sufficient understanding of technologies, system specifications, and the project’s technical background, accurate communication and review become difficult.

Reflecting your responsibility for either functional or non-functional areas, knowledge of UI/UX fundamentals, API design, databases, performance requirements, and other technologies relevant to your project is essential.

2. Communication Skills

Beyond overcoming language barriers, a Bridge SE must grasp cultural nuances and avoid misunderstandings through clear expression. English ability is required, but perfect native-level pronunciation or accent is not the highest priority. What matters most is:

• Ability to convey information clearly
• Ability to explain from the listener’s point of view
• Ability to clarify ambiguous requirements
• Skills in meeting facilitation

Since many offshore destinations for Japan are China or India (not English-native countries), both parties communicate in English as a second language. Therefore:

• Avoid long, complex sentences with relative clauses
• Avoid idioms or colloquial expressions unknown outside textbooks
• Use short, simple, straightforward English

3. Project Management Skills

Especially in waterfall development, progress management, issue tracking, and risk handling require a PM-like perspective. Offshore development also requires consideration of:

• Time zone differences
• Local holidays
• Differences in work styles

Furthermore, offshore teams may not immediately understand why they must follow Japan-side templates for progress, risk, or issue tracking. A Bridge SE must explain the reason and importance behind these formats.

4. Flexibility and Problem-Solving Ability

Due to cultural differences, your intentions may not always be understood immediately. In mission-critical Japanese systems, when bugs occur, teams perform detailed analysis, check for similar issues, and handle quality with extreme care—practices that are not always common overseas.

The Bridge SE must:

• Explain why quality assurance is strict in Japanese projects
• Educate offshore teams beforehand
• Prepare training, communication rules, and escalation flows
• Respond calmly and flexibly during issues

4. Bridge SE in Agile Development

As agile development becomes mainstream, the Bridge SE’s responsibilities are changing. In waterfall development, the role centered on translation and progress management. In agile, continuous communication and adaptability are key.

In agile environments, Bridge SEs support:

• Sprint-level requirement coordination
• Facilitating daily scrums (including time-zone adjustments)
• Bridging intentions between the Product Owner and the development team
• Prioritizing and refining the backlog

Agile is valued because:

• It enables rapid adaptation to changing customer needs
• Close collaboration boosts quality
• Short feedback loops accelerate improvement

Bridge SEs help embed agile values—transparency, adaptability, and collaboration—across the team.

5. Bridge SE in Operation and Maintenance

The Bridge SE’s role continues even after development ends. In fact, during the operation and maintenance phase—when the system is running in production—their impact can be even more significant.

This phase includes responding to user inquiries, handling incidents, making improvement proposals, and managing periodic maintenance.

1. Building Trust with Customers

Daily interactions and timely responses to incidents help build strong customer relationships. Bridge SEs must explain issues in a way that reflects a solid understanding of technical backgrounds.

2. SLA and Quality Management

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) require:

• Response within agreed timelines
• Recovery within specified durations

Bridge SEs coordinate to meet these requirements and handle root cause analysis and preventive measures when violations occur. They may also classify inquiries and analyze trends to propose improvements.

3. Collaboration with Overseas Teams

When 24/7 support is needed, Bridge SEs must build a structure that accounts for time zone differences. Key tasks include:

• Maintaining runbooks and procedures
• Defining clear escalation rules
• Conducting periodic review meetings

4. Improvement Proposals and Value Addition

Operation and maintenance are not merely “defensive” tasks. They include proactive involvement such as:

• Log analysis to identify inefficiencies
• Proposals for automation or workflow optimization
• Regular reporting and review to align future improvements

5. Knowledge Accumulation and Utilization

By organizing past incidents and inquiries into a structured knowledge base, Bridge SEs can:

• Improve response efficiency
• Enhance team capabilities
• Standardize templates and workflows

6. Conclusion

A Bridge SE is not just a technician or translator—they support project quality and smooth execution as the “bridge” between domestic teams and overseas developers. Although the required skills differ across waterfall, agile, and operations, the core competencies remain the same: technical literacy, strong communication ability, and adaptability to cultural differences.

In global development, misunderstandings and friction caused by language and cultural differences are common. Preventing such issues, building trust, and leading teams toward success is the mission of the Bridge SE.

As the IT industry becomes even more internationalized, Bridge SEs will require broader perspectives and more strategic skills. We hope this article helps you understand the essence and potential of the Bridge SE role and supports your career development.