The document discusses branching and merging in revision control systems. It defines branching as duplicating an object under revision control to allow parallel modifications, and merging as reconciling changes made to different copies of the same file. Branching increases agility and maintainability. Reasons for branching include release isolation, feature isolation, and team isolation. The document outlines different branching plans and provides examples of branching structures for single and multi-team development as well as features, hotfixes and service packs.