The Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol. 00:0, 1–24. c  2004, Cambridge University Press DOI: 10.1017/S000000000000000 Printed in the United Kingdom Adaptive Organizational Changes in Agent-Oriented Methodologies Luca Cernuzzi 1 and Franco Zambonelli 2 1 Departamento de Ingeniera Electr´onica e Informtica Universidad Cat´olica “Nuestra Se˜ nora de la Asunci´on” Campus Universitario, C.C. 1683, Asunci´ on, Paraguay E-mail: lcernuzz@uca.edu.py 2 Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dell Ingegneria Universit` a di Modena e Reggio Emilia Via Amendola 2, 42100 Reggio Emilia, Italia E-mail: franco.zambonelli@unimore.it Abstract We analyze the problem of modeling and developing multiagent systems from the organizational theory point of view. In particular, we focus on the critical issue of adapting multiagent systems organizations whenever changes in the structure of the multiagent system are required. We survey different relevant agent-oriented methodologies and discuss their suitability in dealing with adaptation in multiagent organizations. Finally, we present some critical considerations about the analyzed methodologies together with some open issues related to the process of modeling organizations for facilitating their adaptations. 1 Introduction Different approaches for designing and building systems in complex and open environments have been proposed. Some of them focus on the methods, abstractions, and techniques normally used in traditional software engineering paradigms (i.e. component-based and functional-oriented) [Pressman, 2005; Sommerville, 2007]. More recent efforts try to take advantage from the organizational theory, and model/engineer complex software systems in term of components that participate in a computational organization with some specific role [Barber and Martin, 2001; Brooks and Durfee, 2003; Carley and Gasser, 1999; Horling et al., 2004; Matson and DeLoach, 2003; So and Durfee, 1998]. The organizational approach seems to be particularly interesting for multiagent systems (MAS), since these are a typically organized as a society of independent individuals, in need to interact with each other in order to reach a global or an individual goal. In fact, most approaches in the area of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) exploit organizational theory for the modeling and engineering of MASs. In MAS organizations, the types of interactions among component may vary a lot, and may change during time, depending on the goal of the system and the objective of each agent. Depending on the type of organization and on the perceived impact of the changes in the environment, adaptation is achieved by behavioral changes at agent level, modification of interaction agreements, or by the adoption of a new organizational structure. Therefore, some changes may affect the very structure of the MAS. Whatever the software engineering paradigm adopted, one of the key problems for software engineers is dealing with changes and adaptations to the architecture of the software system. Software engineers are trying to anticipate the likely changes and adaptations which normally arise in almost all the software products after their deployments. However, these efforts can normally only tackle predictable changes that involve a reduced set of components (agents, in