> finding ways to integrate maintenance improvements incrementally
To be fair, it's possible bureaucratic process got in the way. If their commit / deployment process didn't allow for any changes to hit the production branch until it was "finished" then there wasn't really an opportunity for them to increment.
That seems likely considering "the new manager, who turfed all those fixes, including the new functionality" suggests other organizational problems. If one month is too long for the new manager, the new manager's goal seems to be to "do things" rather than to "solve problems".
To be fair, it's possible bureaucratic process got in the way. If their commit / deployment process didn't allow for any changes to hit the production branch until it was "finished" then there wasn't really an opportunity for them to increment.
That seems likely considering "the new manager, who turfed all those fixes, including the new functionality" suggests other organizational problems. If one month is too long for the new manager, the new manager's goal seems to be to "do things" rather than to "solve problems".