Firstly, I understand this is probably not the most appropriate forum for this question. I have tried a couple other places with no luck, and you guys are quick, so maybe I'll get an answer here. If you are a mod, and know where this *should* be, feel free to move it.
Where I work, we currently have something that resembles a test/development "environment" (we have a dev server where our working directories are, and it theoretically has a test database for our main application). As part of some upgrades we are doing, I am wanting to change this so we do local development (keep our working directories on our PC's instead of on the network, which is terribly slow and requires that we run our VisualStudio through Citrix).
Anyway, my question is, in a distributed environment (12 sites, each with their own database server), what is the best way to set up a test/dev environment? Our WAN can't really handle the traffic, so if we put a test database on each production server (which is my initial suggestion to my perceived problem), I need to be able to convince my boss that we will be able to easily modify the databases to keep the schemas synced. Additionally, by moving our working folders locally, I need to convince him that there will not be any untoward consequences (I happen to know that it can be done, since this is the first job I've had that was set up in this manner).
So, any personal advice you guys have, or links you can give me would be greatly appreciated. If you need more information, let me know.