# How work is organised

When you say what you want to do, the system takes the active role. It guides you step by step, collects the scope, goal and context, decides the route, and asks you to review and approve clear documents. After approval it carries the work forward with limited involvement from you.

It works in iterations. First it gathers everything needed for the first result, a prototype or a first document version. Then it builds on that result, improving and expanding it.

## The five stages

**Intake**
The system asks for the goal, scope, definition of done, audience, constraints, existing material, people involved, deadline and how much involvement you want. You answer. The result is a filled scope document, the charter for the work.
**Route**
The system chooses the work type and phase, and with them the question set, the first-result kind and the build recipe. It states the choice and why. You confirm or correct.
**Draft for approval**
The system writes the first result in the smallest form that can be judged. It lists open questions. You review, answer and approve.
**Build**
The system implements against the approved first result and reports at agreed points. You answer only blocking questions.
**Iterate**
The system checks the result against the definition of done, proposes the next improvement and repeats stages 3 to 5 on top of the previous version. When the work ends, it writes a retrospective.

One rule governs the loop. Stage 3 asks for everything needed for the first result and no more. Later detail is collected when an iteration needs it, which keeps the first approval small.

## What carries over from earlier practice

- Documents are named for the question they answer.
- The answer comes first: short answer, then the pick, then the argument.
- The number of documents stays proportional to the size of the work. A small request does not get five documents.
- Closed work is not renamed, so references to it keep working.

## Where to read next

The [family methodology](../work-families/the-family-methodology.md) page explains why the flow replaced the earlier approach. [Phases and their routes](../work-families/phases-and-their-routes.md) shows what each kind of work produces.