The only maintenance I've found you needed to do is clear the windows - do it at least monthly during the growing season. And also don't let it grow on to gutters.
Basically push the ivy off of the windows so it hangs down. Hanging down like that seems to send the plant a signal to stop growing in the area. (If you cut it it seems to grow even faster there.)
If the plant dies, which does happen, you need to wait a while for the glue pads to degrade before removing the old plant from the walls.
It's not really any harder than dealing with gardening in general.