DevOps stands for Development and Operations, and it represents a set of practices emphasizing collaboration between software development and IT operations teams. The goal of DevOps is to shorten the development lifecycle while maintaining high software quality through continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD). This approach fosters a culture of shared responsibility, where developers and operations teams work together in agile environments to deliver software more efficiently. By enhancing communication and collaboration, DevOps practices enable organizations to respond quickly to market changes and improve overall productivity.