1. A method for determining whether changes have been made to relational data in a data storage system while the relational data is copied into an object model and before the relational data in the object model is copied back to the data storage system, comprising: copying relational data from the data storage system into a first data object for access by a first application program; upon the first application program attempting to update the relational data in the first data object, creating a copy of the first data object; storing the copy of the first data object in a list of modified data object components; updating the relational data of the first data object; and upon attempting to copy the updated relational data of the first data object back to the data storage system, comparing the copy of the first data object to the relational data stored in the data storage system such that upon determining that the copy of the relational data of the first data object matches the relational data stored in the data storage system indicating that the relational data in the data storage system has not been modified by another application program or component, the updated relational data of the first data object is copied to the data storage system, and whereas upon determining that the copy of the relational data of the first data object does not match the relational data stored in the data storage system, the updated relational data of the first data object is not copied to the data storage system.