Spreadsheets, databases and automations that staff build for themselves can quietly become critical. Four questions a board can ask about them.

Boards check people and machinery before trusting them. Software that staff bring in deserves the same diligence, and the questions are familiar.

Every board says it wants to hear bad news. Fewer behave in a way that makes it likely.

Bad news that arrives early is an asset. It keeps options open: there is still time to change supplier, add resource, re-plan, or tell customers before they hear it elsewhere. The same news six weeks later is a crisis, with fewer choices and a larger bill.