Software architectures that contain many dynamically interacting components each with its own
thread of control engaging in complex coordination protocols are difficult to correctly and
efficiently engineer. Agent-oriented modelling techniques are important for the design and
development of such applications. This book provides a diverse and interesting overview of the
work that is currently being undertaken by a growing number of researchers in the area of
Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. The papers represent a state-of-the-art report of current
research in this field which is of critical importance in facilitating industry take-up of
powerful agent technologies. This volume constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference
proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering AOSE 2008
held in Estoril Portugal in May 2008 as part of AAMAS 2008. The 20 revised full papers were
carefully selected from 50 initial submissions during two rounds of reviewing and improvement.
The papers have been organized into four sections on: multi-agent organizations method
engineering and software development processes testing and debugging as well as tools and
case studies.
