Letters to a novice programmer: Content priority

It has been a long time since our last letter. Today I would like to talk about prioritizing content. When writing code or documenting a complex (more than 1 man*month of effort) project, you should always start with high priority features/content first. For example, if you are writing a developer handbook for a piece software, start with the most frequent use case first. Do not write page after page about design details that are not important for that particular use case. You will NEVER have enough time to write about everything you think is necessary. By documenting/coding high priority items, you maximize document/software usefulness.