Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

provocative maintenance
     
        [Common ironic mutation of "preventive maintenance"] Actions
        performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to
        ensure that the system remains in a usable state.  So called
        because it is all too often performed by a {field servoid} who
        doesn't know what he is doing; such "maintenance" often
        *induces* problems, or otherwise results in the machine's
        remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount
        of time.  See also {scratch monkey}.
     
        [{Jargon File}]