Which of the following, if true, weakens the argument that the company

QUESTION

Which of the following, if true, weakens the argument that the company should use Measurement Strategy Alpha?

A) Software programmers usually have no direct contact with customers and do not determine product specifications.
B) The programming languages used by the company require fewer lines of code to perform a function than the programming languages used by other companies.
C) Any software programmer can choose to increase the number of lines of code it takes to perform any function.
D) An effective software programming team is essential for the financial success of the company.
E) Many of the current software programmers would not receive strong evaluations if the company used Measurement Strategy Alpha.

ANSWER

Answer: C
Explanation: C) Measurement Strategy Alpha rewards software programmers based on the number of lines of code that they produce. But if Choice C is true, then the software programmers can artificially inflate the number of lines it takes to do something. They could abuse this approach by taking thousands of lines of code to do simple things. They would seem productive according to Measurement Strategy Alpha, but they really wouldn’t be. Choice A is sort of relevant to Measurement Strategy Gamma, not Alpha. Choice B is a reason why Measurement Strategy Alpha couldn’t be used to compare programmers from different companies, but these strategies concern the company’s employees only. Choice D suggests that getting this right is important but does not tell us whether Alpha will help the company get it right. Choice E would be a problem if we knew that all of the current software programmers are excellent, but the whole point of the measurement plan is that we don’t know who is doing a good job. So the fact that Alpha would be bad for some employees doesn’t suggest that there is anything wrong with Alpha.