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Q&A Does DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) Apply to Documentation?

The more your documentation is aimed at people reading it like a book the less you should repeat yourself. The more your documentation is a look at this one page read it put it away the more you sh...

posted 7y ago by Helmar‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Monica Cellio‭

Answer
#4: Post undeleted by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2021-02-08T14:37:05Z (over 3 years ago)
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:03:25Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33531
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Helmar‭ · 2019-12-08T08:03:25Z (almost 5 years ago)
The more your documentation is aimed at people reading it like a book the less you should repeat yourself. The more your documentation is a _look at this one page read it put it away_ the more you should repeat yourself.

The most concrete example I can think of are aviation emergency checklists. No Co-Pilot is ever required to look anywhere else after he opened the correct check list. Everything is on that one page. Even if it's a step that is on half the pages (think _inform tower_), if it's deemed important enough to be there it's on every check list.

Since you apparently use automated documentation I'd say few repetitions in the _user training guide_ but repeat yourself a lot in the _emergency recovery runbook._

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-01-31T15:43:56Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 18