[nathanvanfleet]

I mean, I think the best way to start with this is to use a word other than "maintenance." That's not really the most sexy word if you really want people to get behind it. Furthermore it just suggests that the work is keeping something as good as it was from the beginning. Filling in holes, giving it a coat of paint every now and then.

What it really should be called is "refinement." The innovation ends up being incredibly crude but it gets the job done. How can we build on that, make it better and less coarse than it was? How can we make it more efficient?

[nightski]

The fact that you need a sexy word is indicative of the problem.

[saltyworker]

The fact that you need a sexy word is indicative of _human nature_

[adrianN]

Words don't become sexy by themselves, they become sexy because they're labels for sexy things.

[s_kilk]

If it were something utterly intrinsic to Human Nature, there would be no opposition to it.

[firethief]

By that definition there is no true human nature.

[s_kilk]

Bingo

[tbrownaw]

Reproduction is intrinsic to all life -- yes, including us humans -- and yet there are people who oppose it.

[Rovanion]

I'm not sure that can be said with certainty, perhaps it is cultural.

[pmlnr]

Oh, come on. Remarketing words is buzz, and we really shouldn't encourage it. This is why we're having that ridiculous title-bubble as well, Senior Site Reliability Engineer. Sure, whatever. /sysadmin, who's been doing sysadmin, devops, backend dev, and sre stuff and sometimes do pretty css flies away/

[csours]

Continuous Improvement is the lean manufacturing term for it.

[marcosdumay]

Continuous improvement is more like the kind of maintenance you do to software than the one you do to infrastructure.

I don't think the name would matter in any way. It's more a problem of what voters value, or what politicians think that voters value.

[drawkbox]

"Quality of life" improvements would be better. People can motivate themselves if it improves their quality of life. We do daily maintenance, life itself is mostly maintenance, but you can make it worthwhile, and sometimes fun, by focusing that on improving your quality of life and time.

[sengork]

Operational innovation is maybe the term you are looking for.

[pontifk8r]

Sustainability Engineering?

[Waterluvian]

Let's all go remaster our local park!

[deathtrader666]

"Reliability & Recovery Engineering"

[billysielu]

My choice is 'survival'. Less easy for business-types to dismiss.

[throwawaycanada]

Call it long term support logistics and operations.

[noway421]

Or maybe just "Support"

[kutkloon7]

But refinement doesn't seem accurate, as it implies that there are changes being made, while this is not necessarily the case.