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A well-defined branching strategy plays a crucial role in facilitating effective parallel development within DevOps practices. When teams create a clear branching strategy, they can efficiently manage multiple lines of development happening at the same time. This approach allows various team members to work concurrently on features, fixes, or experiments without stepping on each other's toes.

Parallel development becomes manageable because a well-structured strategy sets guidelines on how branches will be created, merged, and maintained. This ensures that code integration happens smoothly by avoiding conflicts and reducing the time spent resolving issues that arise from simultaneous changes. As a result, teams can deliver software more quickly and with a higher level of collaboration.

In contrast, the other choices do not align with the benefits of a well-defined branching strategy. For instance, it does not eliminate the need for code reviews or testing; these practices are essential for maintaining code quality and reliability. Furthermore, while it's true that a strategy can expedite the merging process, it does not inherently make it riskier; rather, a well-managed branching strategy can actually mitigate merging risks through systematic practices.