procedure

n. The manner and steps in which some action is taken. ComputingA group of instructions in a program designed to perform a specific set of operations; a subroutine

Notes

A procedure1 may be written or unwritten. - Procedure2 is typically associated with high-level programming languages. In some languages a procedure is distinguished from a function2, the latter performing an operation on some values and returning a result based on those values. In low-level languages, a procedure is typically called a subroutine.

Citations

Duranti 1998, 115–116[An analysis of the ideal structure of an integrated procedure that generates a document includes the following phases. 1) Introductory phase or initiative, the start of the procedure. 2) Preliminary phase or inquiry, the elements necessary to evaluate the situation. 3) Consultation, the collection of opinions and advice. 4) Deliberation, the final decision making. 5) Controlling phase or deliberative control, the control exercised by a physical or juridical person different from the author of the document embodying the transaction, on the substance of the deliberation and/or on its form. 6) Execution, all the actions which give formal character to the transaction (i.e., validation, communication, notification, publication). Duranti 1998, 131It might be observed that in many cases we already know the procedures [that create documentary products] from various sources such as annual reports, procedure manuals, policy files. But do we? These sources tell us how administrative action was supposed to be carried out, rather than how it actually was carried out; they tell us what the procedures ought to be, what management expected to happen, what the system was built for, and finally what the image was that the creating agency wished to reflect. On the contrary, an analysis of the procedures which begins from their final products allows a verification of the discrepancies between rules and actuality and of the continuous mediation taking place between legal-administrative apparatus and society, and makes the reality attainable. This has always been the primary purpose of diplomatic analysis, and its value has not decreased.