Ask HN: What does “consulting” mean in the software world?

1 pointtbirrell1 comment

I was reading this discussion (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14629533) and some of you were discussing the merits of consulting. I have a vague idea what this means for business, but realized that this is unlikely to be the same for software. Hence the question, what does it mean if you say you are consulting in the software world?

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In some industries and areas of the US 'consulting' can mean temporary employment of various kinds.

In other, IT consultants might be employees of a large firm like IBM who show businesses how to modernize their IT. This would typically be architectural work, very similar in nature to normal business consulting.

There is a middle grey area where a business outsources development or IT work to a specialist company.

Here in the UK, we tend to say contracting instead of consulting in the first context.

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