Today, SpaceX is just testing/demonstrating to NASA that the Dragon capsule is, in fact, capable of performing the precise navigation required to dock with the ISS. So the diagram they keep showing on NASA TV is the scheduled "test track" which will take the capsule around the space station. Additional and more precise maneuvers will be tested tomorrow before the docking takes place.
Due to the vaccuum of space, firing the rocket engines (a "burn") is required for any change in direction (the effects of gravity nonwithstanding). The burns we are looking at right now are to move the Dragon capsule closer to the ISS in the vertical dimension: First one burn to accellerate it upwards towards the ISS, and then a second burn to level it off and stop moving upwards. It will still have its _horizontal_ velocity relative to the space station after the second burn.
