The challenge of using DTAP in your Dynamics CRM deployment process

When planning a new Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution, one of the first decisions a solution architect needs to make is around the setup of the right combination of development, test, and production environments to ensure the delivery of a system that works as expected.

In the enterprise segment, it is common to use the so-called 'DTAP' model, which is short for development, test, acceptance and production, and requires managing multiple environments during an implementation.

DTAP basics

The development environment is strictly for building your application. Common tasks here involve customizations like front- and back-end coding.

The test environment is the place where (preferably) a dedicated tester checks whether the functionality is built according to your requirements.

The acceptance environment is the place where key users or testers can check functionality and accept the solution or note issues.

The production environment is, of course, the place where your application is running and accessible to users. Access to this environment is limited and mostly maintained by a support organization.

In general, the development and test environments could be a two or three server setup; a front-end and SQL Server which could be extended with back-end server.  The acceptance environment should be identical to production so every piece of code, integration, etc. can be fully tested before releasing to the production environment. In some scenario's the acceptance could also be used as fail over.

DTAP Challenges

The most common, and also most important, task with DTAP is release management. A new deployment needs to be released with a path that can be traced from development to the final production environment.

Release notes are critical to every release to production, even if ...