Aircrews learn a set of skills involving a structured way of communicating that breaks down barriers and forces an honest evaluation of the issues. They also automate what they can but still practice their craft over and over again, including what to do during failures. DevOps teams can learn a lot from aircrews.

With a week full of sessions, tutorials, training classes, and events, the STARWEST software testing conference had plenty of takeaways useful for your professional and personal life. Here are four lessons distilled from the conference’s keynote presentations on testing, communication, and directing your career.

The MVP brings tremendous value to a team’s ability to effectively implement agile practices. It also allows us to better understand what “value” actually means to our users and how context changes the meaning. Your MVP must move through your validation and release cycles while still being valuable to your users.