From my learnings thus far, the term “_*maintenance*_” is an absolutely massive turnoff when chatting to people - usually followed by a sigh and blank stare. How do you label maintenance tasks in your own teams? Do they have any other names? The “I’d Prefer Not To Wake Up At 3am” tasks? Thoughts?

Sustainability. Means the ability to exist constantly. For a system to exist constantly, it will require on-going Sustainability efforts. This can be summarized as “Do the easy boring job regularly, instead of the hard scary job in a panic.” Fighting entropy and decay has a cost. The challenge is to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Whereas, unsustainable development, teams are primarily reactive to changes. These teams are caught in a vicious cycle of reacting to events and working harder and longer hours. Teams that fall into survival mode feel like they no time for learning, they are constantly firefighting, late and overcommitted.

this is a brilliant explanation - thanks @Peter Steiner 👍 so for example, if i needed buy-in to perform such a task then it would come across better as a sustainability effort rather than a maintenance effort(?)

Sometimes you just need to change the conversation. Work allocation is another term to try out. Achieving operational excellence, being a trusted partner, and building an inclusive, engaged and agile culture requires a certain work allocation. We balance the time spent on building digital products customers love with time allocated to innovation, sustainability, and professional development.

To set themselves up for success, software development and operation teams need to allocate 20% of their schedule (such as two days per Sprint) as reserved time they invest on refactoring, automation, architecture, design, and other non-functional requirements that can improve quality.

Quote from: https://blog.drinkbird.com/twenty-percent-rule/

Very interesting read - especially the part about being able to create a culture. A “soul” is definitely missing from a lot of teams due to not being able to have much “slack” time…..they’re always on the hunt

We frame it as “Technical Health”. It’s still eating vegetables … but folks perceive it less begrudgingly. It’s also something that investors (Mgmt) seems to respond to better. @Peter Steiner “Sustainability” rings nicely, also.

Amazing - thanks for your input @Eric Warheit 👍 💡