The Six OBASHI™ Layers

The Ownership Layer contains elements representing the person(s) or group(s) that ‘owns’, or is responsible for, business processes portrayed in the Business Layer. Ownership elements can be positioned beneath other ownership elements to create a hierarchy of owners. Examples owners could be:

Accountancy, Planning Manager, Logistics, New York, Purchasing Officer and Environmental Health.

The Business Layer contains elements representing the business processes that are being used by the ‘owner(s)’. These elements are positioned under their appropriate ‘owner’. Examples could be:

Monthly Balance, Sales Transactions, Tank Stock Management, Production Data and Capture Budgeting.

The Application Layer contains elements representing software applications. These are positioned beneath the business processes that utilise them. Examples could include:

Excel, Oracle, Sage, SAP and PeopleSoft.

The System Layer contains elements representing the operating systems on which the applications run. These elements are positioned beneath the appropriate applications. Examples could be:

Window XP, Unix, Solaris, Linux and Vista.

The Hardware Layer contains elements representing the computer hardware on which the operating systems run. These elements are positioned beneath the appropriate operating systems. Examples could be:

Workstations, Servers, Laptops, Tablet PCs, and Mainframes.

The Infrastructure Layer contains elements representing the network infrastructure into which the hardware is connected. Infrastructure elements can be positioned beneath other infrastructure elements to create a hierarchy that supports the business. Examples could be:

Switches, Routers, Multiplexers, Bridges and Hubs.

The OBASHI™ Methodology provides a simple, clear and logical way to visualise and model where and why business processes are aligned with IT assets.