I am aware of the Capability Maturity Model (including CMMI) and SPICE (specifically AutoSPICE). Both of those models assess how robust and mature your process is. My experience has been that the process is assessed by external bodies in the same way that quality is often audited. For the companies I have been involved with, they adopted the model because their customers expected it (I'd question if they would of done it otherwise).

Arguably, like any quality related process, adopting standards such as these should improve your product quality, but it is the quality of the processes that are assessed not the product itself.

Both of these standards are aimed at products that involve a significant amount of software. They are not aimed at a pure hardware system. In fact AutoSPICE used to exclude hardware, something that is rectified with the latest version. We know that there are many systems for which complexity is increasing and thus the Systems Engineering concepts are applicable.

So, my question...

• Does anyone know of any examples where CMM or the other models have been applied in a non-software domain. I'm expecting tumbleweeds!
• Are there any other relevant capability models

I know about the Capability Immaturity Model - there are times that feels less of a parody then it should.