Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I agree that Commerce Server can present unique challenges and complexity not found in other projects. While the Starter Site is great for reference and even as a launching point for some e-Commerce applications, it doesn’t lend itself well to TDD. My comments were meant to be general, and are probably more appropriate for Commerce Server applications not based on the Starter Site.

Also, I think you hit one of the most useful techniques for development – virtualization! I mentioned it briefly, but probably didn’t give it enough attention. I use virtualization for almost all my development these days, and especially for Commerce Server and BizTalk Server.

With regards to CI and testing strategies, I will definitely try to write-up a post soon on how I’ve incorporated these two techniques into my CS projects. It’s also a topic highlighted in my book Professional Commerce Server 2007 (coming soon!).

Thanks!

While I agree with your statements about required elements of a successful dev environment for Commerce Server and dev projects in general I believe that Commerce Server adds an additional complexity to the equation which prohibits some of the stuff. A lot a our work is based on the StarteSite code which brings an architecture to the table that doesn’t readily support TDD and even unit testing.

You asked for techniques useful in setting up a dev environment for CS. The most valuable one I’ve found so far is VPC. I employ VPC solely for CS dev environments by providing what I call a developer satellite. The dev sat is setup with Commerce Server, dev tools, everything you need to get going and sealed using sysprep. The satellite is then distributed to developers on the team who are up and running in a matter of minutes.

I’m still working on CI and testing strategies myself so I would love to hear more about specific details from you on that.

Thanks.