What Good Technology Questions Sound Like

Board members often ask how to engage more effectively on technology risk without becoming technologists.

The answer is in the questions.

Good technology governance questions share a few qualities. They’re business-grounded rather than technically framed. They ask for evidence rather than assurance. They’re short enough to require a direct answer rather than a PowerPoint presentation in response.

Three that work in practice:

▪️ Which technology failure would most disrupt the enterprise right now, and what’s the recovery timeline? This requires management to name a specific vulnerability, not describe the program in general. The answer tells us what’s most at risk and whether management has a credible plan.

▪️ What would we need to see to be confident that our recovery capability is real and tested, not assumed? This focuses the conversation on evidence. It doesn’t ask whether a plan exists. It asks what confirms the plan works.

▪️ Who owns this, and what triggers escalation to the board? This establishes accountability and tests whether the governance structure is defined or informal. An organization with clear answers to both parts has done substantive governance work.

Having been asked these questions as a CIO, and now being the one asking them as a board director, I can say the effect is different depending on which side of the table you’re on. As a former CIO, I found a board that asked me these questions much easier to work with. As a director, it’s about how we avoid getting buried in details that don’t help us.

None of this is complicated to ask. The questions that improve technology governance are often simpler than we expect. Asking them consistently is the discipline.

Looking for additional insights on this topic? I invite you to read more about the Fiduciary Resilience Model.