A configuration management system tracks the configuration of a managed computing environment in accordance with a configuration tracking policy. The configuration management system uses the tracking policy to map configuration information from the managed computing environment to a hierarchy of configuration items. Items may be included or excluded from the hierarchy based on relevance to the tracking policy and a predicted amount of dynamism. A signature of the hierarchy is generated. A change to the configuration environment is detected based on a change to the signature, and an action is performed in response to the detected change.