What Is the SPARA Performance Cube?

The SPARA Performance Cube is a three-dimensional model that enables organisations to:

• Define what areas of service performance require focus
• Determine how performance can be influenced or improved
• Decide how success will be measured and evidenced

These three axes define the dimensions of the Cube:

• Themes: The performance domains — areas where service performance must be established or improved
• Levers: The orchestration mechanisms — how performance is shaped, influenced, and embedded
• Measurement Chain: The evidence — how performance is tracked, proven, and communicated

Together, these create a structured grid in which any performance challenge can be navigated from diagnosis to resolution. The Cube is not linear; it is navigable from any entry point and adaptable to different roles and use cases.

Most frameworks offer sets of tools, lists, or guiding principles, but they often fail to explain how these elements work together in real-world environments. SPARA corrects this by providing a structural model that can be used:

• By practitioners for designing targeted improvement initiatives

• By leadership for ensuring strategic alignment and traceability

• By advisors for diagnosing root causes and performance gaps

• By reporting teams to clarify what should be measured and why

The Cube enables a unified view of performance orchestration, where each improvement initiative can be broken down into:

• The Theme it affects

• The Lever(s) it requires

• The evidence needed to track progress

The SPARA Performance Cube stands apart from traditional frameworks because it is:

• Compositional: You can enter through any axis based on your role, challenge, or goal.

• Structured but flexible: The model provides enough shape to guide you, without prescribing a single sequence.

• Evidence-driven: It integrates a full measurement chain, from objectives to operational metrics and experience indicators.

• Scalable: Equally usable for team-level improvements and enterprise-wide initiatives.

• Action-oriented: Designed not just to explain performance, but to help change it.

Whereas models like the ITIL 4 Service Value Chain define activity flows, and COBIT defines governance layers, the SPARA Cube is designed as a performance system — modular, traceable, and tied to tangible results.

This model is not just a helpful perspective — it is the unifying foundation of the entire SPARA ecosystem.

• SPARA Themes are the horizontal dimension: what must perform.

• SPARA Levers are the vertical dimension: how performance is activated or improved.

• The Measurement Chain forms the depth axis: how performance is defined and proven.

Each Advisor, Toolkit, Blueprint, and Training Module ultimately interacts with this Cube.

For example:

• The Dashboard Advisor navigates the Dashboard Theme, via Reporting and Governance Levers, using KPI-level measures.

• A Service Transition Toolkit may apply multiple Levers (Tools, People, Process) within the Change and Transition Theme, and use CSFs and XLAs to track results.

• The Capability Maturity Matrix scores capability at the Theme x Lever level and aligns targets to appropriate measurement indicators.

The Cube enables what we call a Performance Journey: a structured path through the Cube from initial problem statement to resolved, evidenced improvement. Each journey includes:

1. Theme: Identify the area of performance needing attention

2. Lever: Choose the orchestration mechanism(s) to act upon it

3. Measurement Chain: Define the outcome, how success is recognised, and what to measure

4. Action: Apply tools, people, or interventions

5. Result: Capture improvement using pre-defined indicators

The SPARA Performance Cube is designed to complement, not replace, other frameworks. It fills the practical gap left by models that separate strategic alignment from operational application. It is:

• As structured as COBIT’s enablers

• As outcome-focused as OKRs

• As process-aware as ITIL’s Service Value Chain

• But uniquely:

  • Built around performance, not process

  • Grounded in actionable orchestration, not just governance

  • Designed for evidence, not theory

SPARA doesn’t compete with these models — it connects them through a common operating system for performance.