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PMI-ACP · Question #179

According to DeMarco, Fragmented knowledge workers may look busy but a lot of their business is just thrashing. The minimum cost penalty is :

The correct answer is A. 15%. According to Tom DeMarco's research cited in 'Peopleware,' fragmented knowledge workers - those who are constantly interrupted and forced to context-switch between tasks - suffer a minimum cost penalty of 15% (A). The fragmentation causes workers to appear busy but they are…

Submitted by suresh_in· Apr 18, 2026Team Performance

Question

According to DeMarco, Fragmented knowledge workers may look busy but a lot of their business is just thrashing. The minimum cost penalty is :

Options

  • A15%
  • B10%
  • C5%
  • D25%

How the community answered

(26 responses)
  • A
    92% (24)
  • C
    4% (1)
  • D
    4% (1)

Explanation

According to Tom DeMarco's research cited in 'Peopleware,' fragmented knowledge workers - those who are constantly interrupted and forced to context-switch between tasks - suffer a minimum cost penalty of 15% (A). The fragmentation causes workers to appear busy but they are largely 'thrashing,' meaning they spend cognitive energy switching contexts rather than producing value. This underpins the Agile principle of dedicated, focused teams to maximize productivity and flow.

Topics

#DeMarco#Context Switching#Thrashing#Productivity Cost

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