Re: So that explains...
As far as I understand it it's meant to encompass any tools and methods for using automation to make code management, testing and release easier for developers, as well as using them to standardise environments, reducing the chances of bugs cropping up as a result of, say, a different version of Apache on development machines and production
With web applications you might have it so, when code is merged into a testing branch it spins up a test environment using the same software versions etc as live, runs through any unit and functionality testing, then either forwards it on to QA for testing or back to development. Then once QA has tested it they can either reject the merge and send it back to the developer or queue it for release without needing to talk to someone who does release management. Desktop software would be similar, but would also do test builds and wouldn't release to production for initial release, then would be used for managing and releasing patches
Of course it does rely on it being properly implemented, as a bad implementation would probably result in more work/problems than doing without, and it also needs to be adapted to whatever your working at. It's nothing new really, just a shiny new badge which makes it a bit easier to sell management on letting you dedicate some time to something which should really be getting done anyway