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CGEIT · Question #675

A board of directors is concerned with the total cost of IT. Which of the following is MOST important for the CIO to include in an explanation to the board?

The correct answer is D. A breakdown of operational versus capital expenditures. To address the board's concern about the total cost of IT, the CIO should primarily provide a clear breakdown of operational versus capital expenditures.

Submitted by manish99· Apr 18, 2026Governance of Enterprise IT

Question

A board of directors is concerned with the total cost of IT. Which of the following is MOST important for the CIO to include in an explanation to the board?

Options

  • AA summary of benefits that will be achieved once key IT initiatives are completed.
  • BA mapping of IT employee roles to the balanced scorecard.
  • CA benchmark of IT employee salary costs against comparable organizations.
  • DA breakdown of operational versus capital expenditures.

How the community answered

(30 responses)
  • A
    7% (2)
  • B
    10% (3)
  • C
    3% (1)
  • D
    80% (24)

Why each option

To address the board's concern about the total cost of IT, the CIO should primarily provide a clear breakdown of operational versus capital expenditures.

AA summary of benefits that will be achieved once key IT initiatives are completed.

A summary of benefits is important for justifying IT spend, but it doesn't directly address the 'total cost' concern in terms of financial structure and allocation.

BA mapping of IT employee roles to the balanced scorecard.

Mapping IT employee roles to a balanced scorecard is a detailed internal performance management tool and not the primary information needed by the board for overall cost understanding.

CA benchmark of IT employee salary costs against comparable organizations.

Benchmarking IT employee salary costs provides a comparison for one component of OpEx but does not provide the comprehensive financial breakdown requested for 'total cost'.

DA breakdown of operational versus capital expenditures.Correct

When the board is concerned about the total cost of IT, providing a clear breakdown of operational (OpEx) versus capital expenditures (CapEx) is most crucial. This distinction helps the board understand how IT funds are being allocated, whether for day-to-day running costs and maintenance (OpEx) or for investments in long-term assets and growth (CapEx), which are fundamental categories for financial oversight.

Concept tested: Financial transparency for IT costs

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/plan/funding-models

Topics

#IT Cost Management#Financial Reporting#Capital vs. Operational Expenditure#Board Reporting

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