In all three cases (novice outside the skill, person outside the organization, outside judgment), a procedure provides a ground for dialogue over a boundary ... books 
[…] procedures are a "way in" for beginners. Extrapolating from this, it seems that procedures are also a way around an organization for outsiders (people who are not about to join the organization or learn its skills). If something has gone wrong, or appears to have gone wrong, then some knowledge of procedure is helpful in knowing where to start enquiring, who to ask. In this case, the procedure can be helpful even if it is a very superficial gloss. Procedures also cover the workers themselves against Blame, because it is hard to blame someone if they have been following a "correct procedure." One can reflect that on many occasions the person (boss, manager) doing the blaming will not have, and maybe not even care about, the situated skills necessary to do the work In all three cases (novice outside the skill, person outside the organization, outside judgment), a procedure provides a ground for dialogue over a boundary. **In general, it seems that procedures are for consumption not production. They are for consumption by outsiders, so, in many ways, the glossier the better. They are not algorithms for producing work by insiders.**
Procedures are also a ground on which dialogue can be organized, so they seem to be "Boundary Objects" (Star, 1989, 1992; Star & Griesemcr, 1989) in the full sense described here:
> Boundary objects are objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites. They are weakly structured in common use, and become strongly structured in individual-site use. … A boundary object "sits in the middle“ of a group of actors with divergent viewpoints. (Star, 1992)