A method of detecting and tracking changes in engineering configuration data (ECD) for control and instrumentation (C&I) systems an industrial facility. First ECD in a first data format used in a first C&I system and second ECD in a second data format used in a second C&I system are converted into a common format. The first and second ECD are stored together as reference snapshot data with a timestamp in a single information source. At a second time, after the first time reflected in the timestamp, the first and second ECD are obtained. The first ECD and the second ECD obtained at the second time are converted into the common format that collectively provides updated snapshot data. Changes are detected between the first ECD and the second ECD by comparing the reference snapshot data to the updated snapshot data.