We present a framework and methodology for the design of agent societies that considers the influence of social organizational aspects on the functionality and objectives of the agent society and specifies the development steps for the design and development of an agent-based system for a particular domain. Our approach is to provide a generic frame that directly relates to the organizational perception of the problem. The methodology informs and supports the development of increasingly detailed models of the society and its components. For the implementation of each methodological step existing agent oriented software development methodologies can be used.