Software is everywhere; this is a fact that cannot be denied in society today. The average cell phone for example contains an estimated 2 million lines of code and this is expected to multiply five times within the next three years. The vehicle you drive today has upwards of 35 million lines of code contained within it, and three years from now this number will rise to over 100 million.

Obviously this scale of things presents several challenges to the software engineering community one of which is the ability of these organizations to keep pace with the rapid cycle of innovation that most businesses operate within today. Software teams are asked to deploy more, faster; to accommodate new products with new features; and to incorporate new technologies into the mix, all to sustain or gain a competitive edge in the ever changing market. The trick for these teams is to do all of this, yet at a sustainable level of cost, and without sacrificing software quality.

This paper will talk specifically to the challenge software engineering teams face in managing and responding to rapidly changing business requirements, the reasons behind frequent change, and why tools for requirements change management are essential in controlling an otherwise chaotic development process.