For years, teams have bundled continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) into a single concept: CI/CD. This shorthand suggests a seamless pipeline, but in practice, it creates confusion and hides the fact that CI and CD solve very different problems.

CI is like the quality control process in a factory, meticulously inspecting and testing every component to ensure it’s safe and meets standards before it’s ever installed. CD, on the other hand, is the logistics company, using a deliberate strategy to deliver the finished product to the customer, monitoring its journey, and having a plan for a safe return if something goes wrong. Treating them as one often creates unoptimized workflows, blurs the separation of responsibilities, and causes confusion about what is needed when.