Abstract
The concept of patterns and pattern languages, although very common in software nowadays, was first approached by Christopher Alexander, in the area of architecture, in the book A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction. However, it was only in 1980 that the term was adapted for software development, gaining its popularity in 1994. Despite the fact that the concept of patterns has been used in the area of software development for more than 40 years, there is still no consensus on the best method to validate patterns and patterns languages, and the existing methods are scattered in several different papers and research across the scientific community. As such, in this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review about the existing methods in the scientific community to validate patterns and pattern languages. © 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Abstract
This tutorial delves into the transformative power of asking effective questions in engineering information systems. We explore how crafting well-defined questions in both the problem space (what issue are we addressing?) and the solution space (how will we approach it?) is paramount for success. The session will unveil the intricate relationship between these questions - how the what shapes the how and vice versa. We move beyond the fear of asking naive questions, demonstrating how these can spark innovation and reveal hidden assumptions. By the end, attendees will have a powerful and easy-to-use technique that removes the fear from questions.

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The development of safety-critical systems is heavily governed by domain-specific standards. In the aerospace industry, the DO-178C - Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification - serves as the primary certification standard used by agencies such as the FAA and EASA to review and approve software-based systems. Although DO-178C aims to ensure system safety while providing evidence for certification, it does not prescribe a specific software development process, allowing flexibility for traditional Waterfall, Agile, or hybrid methods with appropriate adaptations for the aerospace context. This study proposes Scrum4DO178C, an Agile process based on Scrum, to meet the demanding requirements of aerospace software, including safety, robustness, reliability, and integrity. Scrum4DO178C introduces novel process enhancements specifically tailored to meet these criticality needs, while aligning with the standard. Unlike previous proposals that lack detail, this research presents a comprehensive, validated process applied in a real-world industry project at the highest criticality level (Level A - Catastrophic), offering insights beyond theoretical scenarios. The findings demonstrated that the Scrum4DO178C process improves project performance, allows frequent and manageable requirement changes, reduces Verification & Validation (V&V) effort, and increases efficiency while maintaining full compliance with DO-178C. The study also identifies areas for further improvement and suggests exploring the process in additional case studies, both within the aerospace industry and other domains with similarly stringent safety-critical requirements. Finally, it confirms that appropriate automation, namely for documentation production, is a central element to further improve the process. © 2013 IEEE.

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Abstract