# AS-IS documentation

> Phase 1 AS-IS interview in Cartographer, covering the interview structure, confirming the process map, and generating an AS-IS document.

Phase 1 captures the current state of your process through a conversational interview. **Cartographer** describes what it is building, asks targeted follow-up questions, and confirms a locked AS-IS process map before Phase 2 begins.

## What Phase 1 does

The interview is conversational — you describe the process in your own words and **Cartographer** asks targeted follow-up questions. You are never handed a blank form to fill in.

| Step | Area | What Cartographer is building |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Process framing | Process name, objective, trigger, frequency, volume, and scope boundaries |
| 2 | Roles and systems | Every team, person, and application involved, and their relationship to each step |
| 3 | Step walkthrough | A step-by-step description of the process from trigger to completion |
| 4 | Business rules and decisions | Conditions, thresholds, approvals, and exception paths |
| 5 | Gaps and ambiguities | Questions the source material cannot answer, and deferred items flagged for later |

:::note
You do not need to cover these areas in strict order. **Cartographer** adapts to how you naturally describe the process — if you cover rules before steps, it reorganizes automatically.
:::

## How to give useful answers

| Topic | Weak answer | Strong answer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Trigger | "It starts when we get an invoice." | "An invoice PDF arrives in the AP mailbox. The system checks for it every 30 minutes on business days." |
| System | "We use SAP." | "We use SAP S/4HANA. The relevant transaction is MIRO for invoice posting and ME23N for PO lookup." |
| Rule | "High-value invoices need approval." | "Invoices over $50,000 require dual approval — Finance Manager and VP of Finance — before posting." |
| Exception | "Sometimes there are errors." | "If the PO number is missing, the invoice routes to the AP Clerk for manual research. Target resolution is 48 hours." |

:::tip
If you cannot answer a question, say so explicitly — for example, "I don't know, mark that as a gap." **Cartographer** records it and moves on. Guessing produces inaccurate documentation that is harder to fix later.
:::

## Knowing when Phase 1 is complete

Review the list of captured steps, available under **Files > AS-IS**, and the proposed current-state AS-IS diagram. Correct anything that is wrong before confirming the map — once confirmed, the map is locked and used as the basis for the Phase 3 document. The map is never a placeholder; it is your actual confirmed flowchart, embedded in the Process Design Document (PDD).

You can change the AS-IS capture in three ways:

* Tell **Cartographer** to add or make a change directly, for example: "Rename Step 2 as 'Patient match to Employee Sponsor record.'"
* Provide a new file that adds information, for example: "I've attached pages from the State Regulatory agency containing business rules we must comply with. See paragraphs 5.6 to 5.8."
* Edit the wiki content directly: open **Files**, navigate to the wiki section you want to change, point to the section, and select the edit (pencil) icon.

:::important
"Looks good" is not confirmation. Say explicitly: "I confirm the process map" or "the map is correct" to lock it and complete Phase 1.
:::

## Generating an AS-IS document

You do not need to generate a standalone AS-IS document to continue to Phase 2 — the confirmed map carries forward automatically. Generate one when:

* You need a baseline document for compliance or audit.
* You are building a training guide for current-state operations.
* You want stakeholder sign-off on the AS-IS state before designing the TO-BE state.
* You are not yet ready to design the future state.

The PDD is the only default document type available, and typically runs 15–30 pages. Custom templates with a different scope, such as an SOP, process brief, or business rule extract (coming soon), are not yet available.

Every AS-IS document contains:

* Process overview — what the process does and why it matters
* Confirmed process map — the real embedded flowchart, never a placeholder
* Step-by-step walkthrough — a detailed description of each step
* Business rules — conditions, thresholds, and approval requirements
* Roles and systems — who does what and which tools are used
* Pain points — current challenges and bottlenecks identified during the interview
* Known gaps — questions deferred for resolution
* Source attribution (coming soon) — which source document each fact came from

## Next steps

Continue to [Delegating a task](delegating-a-task.md) if you need input from other team members, or continue directly to [TO-BE design and PDD generation](to-be-design-and-pdd-generation.md).