The Value of Varied Development Environments

When we get serious about development we have to use enterprise tools.  These include version control, defect tracking, change management, and multiple development environments.  These development environments range from pure development to testing, staging, and finally production.  In this episode, we explore how to build and use each of these.

Development Environments Cover the Full SDLC

A good series of environments will address the various areas of the software development lifecycle.  There might be one for design, prototyping, and clickable demos.  As you progress through the SDLC the demo environment can grow into your sales environment.  Thus, features can be mocked up and shown to customers.  There should always be at least one development environment.  Preferably there is an environment for each developer.  That allows the developers to "play" with their changes.  They can focus on debugging without worrying about impacting others.  That being said, a test environment for the latest builds is separate from development.  This allows testers a pseudo-stable area to run through their scripts.  This test system also provides a step to production or customer releases.

There are costs associated with multiple environments.  Luckily, technology provides ways to keep costs down.  There are options like docker, virtual machines, and other low-cost systems that make these best practices cheap and easy.  In fact, these advances give developers a shorter path to productivity as well.  Instead of spending days to get coding started for each team member, a model environment can be rapidly replicated.