Continuous Integration (CI): The practice of merging all developers' working copies to a shared mainline several times a day. Continuous Delivery (CD): The practice where code changes are automatically prepared for a release to production. Together, they form the "CI/CD Pipeline".
CI/CD allows for smaller, faster, and safer updates. It removes the "integration hell" of merging long-lived branches and ensures software is always in a deployable state.
CI/CD is the heartbeat of modern engineering. If the pipeline is red (broken), stop the line. Nothing is more important than fixing the factory floor. We judge the health of a team by the speed and reliability of their pipeline.