procedural

Etymology

procedure + -al

adj

1. Related to procedure.
   The judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds: it wasn't the facts or the law, but just that they hadn't filed the correct forms.
2. (computing) Generated by means of a procedure, rather than being designed.
   a procedural texture; procedural terrain

noun

1. (literature) A type of literature, film, or television program involving a sequence of technical detail.
   It is only fitting that the investigation of place-based police procedurals begins in America, where the police procedural was invented and turned into a literary art form. 2000, Gary Hausladen, Places for Dead Bodies, page 35