What is the best way to configure a SQL Server for 50 developers?

Question

Hi,

If I am running an organization that has 50 .net developers and all are using SQL Server, what is the best way to make a single SQL Server available to them?

Here is some of the concerns that I want to be careful about

1. Should I configure database users per project or per user? or both?
2. Should I provide single SQL Server instance? Edit:
3. How can I track changes done by each user in database?

There are some more concerns but I think getting answer of these two will be a good starting point.

Answer 1

You should definitely configure a database per project, as only project specific items should be in that database. Also for backup and restore purposes a database per project will be a good idea.

Configuring databases for your developers depends on how many developers will actually develop for the database: create tables, views etc. Database developers should probably have some sort of test copy of the database they can use to develop their end of things, while the 'regular' developers work against a published copy of this database:

So a setup could be: 2 databases per project, one for db development and one for other development.

This way changes to the database scheme can first be developed and tested before pushed out to the rest of the developers.