Book excerpt: This book is a result of ISD2000-The Ninth International Conference on Infor mation Systems Development: Methods and Tools, Theory and Practice, held August 14-16, in Kristiansand, Norway. The ISD conference has its roots in the first Polish Scandinavian Seminar on Current Trends in Information Systems Development Method ologies, held in Gdansk, Poland in 1988. This year, as the conference carries into the new millennium this fine tradition, it was fitting that it returned to Scandinavia. Velkommen tilbake! Next year, ISD crosses the North Sea and in the traditions of the Vikings, invades England. Like every ISD conference, ISD2000 gave participants an opportunity to express ideas on the current state of the art in information systems development, and to discuss and exchange views about new methods, tools and applications. This is particularly important now, since the field of ISD has seen rapid, and often bewildering, changes. To quote a Chinese proverb, we are indeed cursed, or blessed, depending on how we choose to look at it, to be "living in interesting times".