What is the common term for contracting custom software development to an outside firm?

The common term for contracting custom software development to an outside firm is outsourcing. This concept involves a business delegating software development tasks to an external organization, which may have specialized expertise or resources that are not available in-house.

Outsourcing allows companies to focus on their core activities while leveraging the skills and efficiencies of another company to create custom software. It can also be cost-effective, as businesses can often find competitive rates and skilled labor in different geographical regions.

Other terms such as scaling refer to adjusting the capacity of resources, service-oriented architecture is a software design approach, and application integration involves connecting different software applications to work together, which do not directly pertain to the concept of contracting external firms for software development. Each of these terms has its own specific context in the IT field, distinct from the concept of outsourcing custom software development.