transform hierarchy module design

[ghost]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to setup a simple system for evaluating transform hierarchies.
I have a transform component that tracks a relative transform (parent) and an absolute transform (world).
using the childOf relationship seems to be the de-facto way of setting up the hierarchy, but I also want to minimize the work done each frame. I've introduced a "Dirty" tag to attach to transforms that have been modified.

My updateTransformHierarchy system needs to query for Dirty transforms with children, and iterate through them, updating the absolute transforms of the children, and passing the dirty flag down, ideally only if the child transform has a child of its own.

Traversal for the childOf relationship moves from child to parent, im not sure if this is ideal for my requirements.

if anyone has insight into how to accomplish something like this it would be appreciated.