Tridion DTAP Clarified - How many Content Delivery setups do I need?

Question

I asked about developer setup for Tridion DTAP (development, test, acceptance, and production) in this other question, but understand the example didn't match a typical DTAP scenario.

Chris Summers explains the CM-side well in his Fifth Tridion Environment post. But for clarity, could I get help understanding the ideal setup?

CMS environments

• D = Development
• T = Test
• A = Acceptance
• P = Production

I understand typical authors only use Production and publish from CMS Production to "Live" and "Staging." The other environments are for development.

CD?

Does "Live and Staging" apply to each of the other environments--does that mean 8 content delivery setups (per website)?

And if so, where is it okay to consolidate--fewer CMS environments? Fewer target types?

Answer 1

I believe you should have Live and Staging in every environment - The main reason I see for this (assuming you use SiteEdit in your staging environment only), is to validate that SiteEdit syntax is output only to the correct targets.

It is not uncommon to have code which checks which target you are publishing to, and alters the output accordingly. If this is the case, it is essential to test with the same collection of targets and target types that the production environment has.

Additional reasons for having matching target setups in the lower environments may include the need to validate security models where you give rights to deploy to certain targets to distinct users or groups, and if you are using the "Minimal Level of Approval" feature on targets when combined with workflow.