PurposeThis paper aims to describe the development of a tailorable framework of practices for maintenance delivery (MD) and present a range of examples to demonstrate the tailoring process. The framework covers the entire scope of MD in detail, including several related subjects where significant business process interaction occurs. It offers a wide range of optional practices throughout, complete with expert guidance to enable tailoring based on the business context.Design/methodology/approachThe framework was developed in two stages: firstly, via a review of existing MD processes from the literature to establish a preliminary version; this was then developed further via a Delphi study utilising the opinion of experts from industry to validate, critique and improve the initial framework design.FindingsThe completed framework was implemented and tested by the industrial sponsor of this research and was found to deliver significant improvement to their MD practices.Practical implicationsThe tailorable nature of the framework means that it can be utilised by any business to design an MD process that is fully effective within their specific context. Alongside a tailored MD process, the framework will also generate a fully aligned implementation specification for the supporting computerised maintenance management system (CMMS), which is also tailored according to the same contextual requirements. This will enable the end user of the framework to procure, implement and configure a CMMS that has all of the functionality required to fully support their business requirements.Originality/valueInnovation is delivered by combining a novel business process design tool with a software specification tool to solve a common industry problem (i.e. poor CMMS implementation).