Work a long time on it properly as a procedure (9)
I believe the answer is:
operation
'procedure' is the definition.
(I know that procedure can be written as operation)
'work a long time on it' is the wordplay.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'a long time' becomes 'ration' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'it' becomes 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT').
'ration' after 'e' is 'eration'.
'op'+'eration'='OPERATION'
'properly as a' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for operation that I've seen before include "Procedure; enterprise" , "running" , "Action; process" , "military undertaking" , "Business" .)