The techniques involved are much the same. What happens during braising is that moist heat softens the connective tissue in meat. An extreme example of connective tissue is the yellow gristle you get in cheap cuts, but it comes in other, more cookable, forms as well. A thin sheet of connective tissue surrounds every protein strand in a cut of meat, and a slightly thicker sheet surrounds every muscle too. Still more connective tissue binds muscle to bone.
Connective tissue builds up in muscles that are heavily worked.
That's what makes them tough. But it's also what makes them moist and tender after a long, slow cooking. There is no more point in braising a tender cut such as sirloin than there is in grilling a shank. The problem with connective tissue is that it's tough and stringy and slow to dissolve in cooking. While most red meats are considered cooked at 130 to 140 degrees, connective tissue doesn't begin to soften until about 160 degrees.