Book Review: The Basics of Process Mapping - Robert Damelio

By Joe Melo

When confronted with a book titled "The Basics of...", one’s thoughts might immediately be drawn to the "...For Dummies" series: the chain of books which has so successfully franchised itself by implying that people should feel stupid for not knowing about any number of topics; topics which usually require more than a rudimentary understanding.

In "The Basics of Process Mapping", Robert Damelio has cleverly done the opposite by taking a rather simple idea and clearly outlining the more complex opportunities available to process map developers.

"The Basics of Process Mapping" is intended for people with little to no experience in the process mapping field. Damelio’s book is described on the jacket as "...a quick and practical guide that explains the importance of process mapping..., gives step-by-step instructions for map development and interpretation...", and accents the differences between various types of process maps.

In a book as small as this one is (an easy-read at 64 pages), Damelio sets an aggressive agenda for the book, exploring topics such as the benefits of process mapping; describing the three levels of process maps; providing detailed accounts of how to develop each within your organization; explaining the relationships between each of the three process map levels; as well as ideas on how to analyse maps for possible process improvement.

Damelio does a good job of distinguishing the three levels of process maps, and illustrating how the three levels relate to one another. The use of one on-going case example throughout the book allows readers to follow the development process from start-to-finish with a singular project, rather than have multiple independent examples tailored to each topic. The text is interspersed with several illustrations of the process maps being described, making the reader’s progress through the book relatively effortless.

Some weak areas of the book are those that talk about the idea of using process maps to analyse and improve processes in your organization; the main problem here is that this issue is too wide in scope to adequately cover in a book this size.

Damelio does a good job of giving examples of areas for improvement pertaining to his case example, but there isn’t much to go on for your own project. The guidelines provide the "what" for process improvement, but leave the reader to figure out the "how" on their own.

One other issue involves the illustrations pertaining to Damelio’s case example becoming difficult to follow as you get further into the text. On closer inspection, it seemed that the diagrams weren’t accurately illustrating the text; this might be a bit confusing for someone with little or no experience reading process maps.

In short, this book is an ideal pocket guide for a new hire or student preparing to break into the industry, as it definitely delivers on what is promised in the title: the basics of process mapping. Damelio does a good job of introducing the deeper ideas and possibilities that can come with effective mapping, but this probably isn’t the text to consult if you are hoping to increase your knowledge on how to effectively analyse your process maps to increase productivity.

Joe Melo is a Technical Writer and Business Analyst with Bank of Montreal Financial Group in Toronto, Canada. He can be contacted at Joseph1.Melo@bmo.com

The Basics of Process Mapping, by Robert Damielo, ProductivityPress, ISBN 978-0-527-76316-9 - Price c.$12.00