and its process according to an embodiment of the invention the process includes start tracking 110 a process changes data 120 a tracking plug in 130 creates the changes and the application calls the application programming interface api to synchronize the changes 140 at 110 tracking of changes is started in an embodiment the changes that are tracked include information that is part of an electronic design data model such as the openaccess data model in another embodiment changes to other design representations are tracked in a further embodiment a tool kit is used to relate application specific data models and openaccess data models in one embodiment the process of tracking and synchronizing changes is started by a user in another embodiment the process of tracking and synchronizing changes is automatically performed by a system at 120 data is modified within a given process running application x in one embodiment the data is changed by the user for example through an interactive editor in another embodiment the data is changed by the system or automatic updates in a further embodiment the data is changed under the direction of another application or process other ways to change the data are also possible at 130 the tracking plug in monitors the changes and produces a record of the changes in a change set which may be represented in a data structure in one embodiment the change set is stored as auxiliary data structures associated with openaccess in another embodiment the change set is stored as an application specific set of data structures in one embodiment the tracking plug in.