Are you asking about the "as-is" situation or the "as-it-should-be" situation?  I was recently frustrated with a project, trying to explain to someone that I needed time to build a big picture and was told "you have the statement of work, that's your big picture."  {heavy sigh}

Didelancey:

Excellent question!  I purposefully did not address such in my question as I wanted to be as open to ideas as possible.  There are two schools of thought:

*   An "as is" is needed, and it is to be modified into the "to be".

*  An "as is" is a big  waste of time - so much so that such efforts often  kill a project.  Only create a "to be".

My thoughts:  Ideally, just create a "to be".   However, I have always found it to be the case that nobody - NOBODY - has a anywhere near the comprehensive, integrated understanding of what the "to be" is to be.   (That, by the way, is probably the reason why you got the silly response that you got - they are trying to blow you off because they do not want you to know that they can not help you.)  So, I always start with an "as-is".  

Note:  A good finished state "as is" is heavily focused on the unchanging business requirements  (i.e., the unchanging  "whats" vs the implementation specific  "hows").  So much that some experts say that a good "as is" is 98% of your "to be". 

Tony