What does your ideal web development (ASP.NET) environment consist of?

Question

I start at a new client on Monday. They’re just beginning to do web development (ASP.NET) and I’m going to help them with setting up a proper development environment.

I don’t think I’ll have a say on what type of machines the developers will be using, so this is more of a backend scenario.

So far the main things I’ve come up with include:

• Versioning control system (source control).
• Bug Database
• Doc Repo / Project Management / Tasks
• (They are currently using Base Camp by 37 signals, which is a good sign to me.)*
• Dev / QA / Staging / Build servers (web, db)

So far this is what I have come up with. I don’t know what budget they have right now, but in your ideal development environment, what else would you recommend that I propose? Thanks!

Answer 1

You said you won't have input on the machines, but I'd put dual monitors pretty high on the list as far as productivity goes for web development or just computer use in general.

Answer 2

Development machine: Visual Studio 2008 + VisualSVN/TortoiseSVN + Resharper

Buildserver: Teamcity

LAN testing server: Webserver with build by buildserver + DB with daily copy of live

QA/Staging depends on the project size.

Answer 3

I think, there is no ultimate answer for this. Because each developer has their own opinion - what software they use for VCS, Bug Tracking, etc...

And here is my opinion :)

Ideal for Microsoft Technologies is TFS (Team Foundation Server), which has all the features you want.

And here my list in case you don't want TFS:

Version control system

• SVN
• Mercurial
• GIT

Bug Database / Project Management / Tasks

• JIRA
• FogBugz

Developers environment

• Dual screen
• Powerful PC
• Quality chair
• Whiteboard

• Free coffee

• This is all very cheap if you compare it to their salary for six months