Continuous Integration is the practice of merging code frequently and running an automated suite of checks on every change, so problems surface within minutes rather than at the end of a release. Continuous Delivery extends that to the deployment itself: once the checks pass, shipping is a routine, automated, low-drama event rather than a scheduled ordeal.
The payoff is not speed for its own sake. It is that small, frequent, tested changes are far less risky than large, rare ones. A team with good CI/CD can fix a problem and have the fix live safely in minutes, which changes how confidently the whole system can evolve.
Related terms