Short answer

It depends: On one hand, homogeneity, consistency and standardization can be really useful and efficient for documentation, on the other hand can cost and effort for such standardized documentation become very high.

Longer answer

Answer the following questions for your situation. The more “yes” answers the more useful a regulated documentation might be:

• Do you have many (i.e. more than 15) IT-systems you develop or maintain?
• Do many of these systems have technical similarities (use common frameworks, implementation approaches, technical concepts)?
• Do you work with different implementation or maintenance teams?
• Do you have a lot of change within your development team?
• Do different organizations work on your systems (i.e. external service providers)?
• Do you work in regulated domains (i.e. medicine, aerospace, pharmaceutics etc.)?
• Will the documentation of your systems be audited, validated or otherwise (formally) checked?
• Are some of your systems highly critical for success or survival of your organization?
• Are your systems maintained by a large development team (>100 people)?