Recently during discussions for Application Lifecycle management using Team foundation services from Microsoft Visual Studio UK team, the interesting topic came up- about the ability to

configure automated builds for enterprise scale Dynamics CRM implementations. The below flow diagram takes the most basic form of automated build structure in order to provide an understanding

of the process which has been referred from Microsoft documentation available to be downloaded. I am just going to focus on understanding the recommended approach in detail:

Following Steps best describe the automated build process:

· Each Developer executes his local build, Code Analysis is performed locally in the system

· This is then checked-in and passed on to a Team Foundation server(This can also use Visual Studio online services)

· Gated Check-in takes place at the team foundation server and the automation is configured as a Build Automation component.

· The automated build is then processed as a Daily build to Dynamics CRM environment

Now, let us consider a multi-developer scenario in the same:

The idea here is to provide each developer with a Virtual CRM development local environment, each connected to central TFS server( as described in

the first diagram) and then use a Master CRM Dev environment in the control of ideally the Team lead, which flows customizations down to each local

environment so everything remains in sync. So, conflicts or changes being lost will be controlled from Master.

For more details, you can refer to Microsoft white paper here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/download/details.aspx?id=39044

Note: Diagrams are referred from the White paper, however i have solely used explanations/approach from my own experience.

Hope it helps!