Whatever you call it, an IRA applicant only needs 15 hours of instrument instruction from a CFII. The remaining 25 hours can be with a CFII (and often is) but it can also be simulated instrument with a safety pilot or a CFI-airplane.

I had one student who was on a budget, so I trained him up to where he knew what all the tasks were, and then he went flying with another PP buddy as SP until he felt that he had it all under control. He came back to me for the 3 hours in 60 days, got signed off, and passed. Most students need more CFII time than this guy however.