I agree with GSquared -- open and shared sandbox, a little tighter security on the dev and QA and production are locked down. I've been in situations where dev was so locked down, it took a team and a lot of time to get simple enhancements working. I've also been where QA and production were not locked down. We had a lot more problems with the second, but the first was almost as bad because we couldn't accomplish anything on time or with limited resources.

It was even worse when I contracted and worked at some places where they weren't willing to pay for a differentiated landscape. Of course, VM's weren't around at that time and they make a world of difference. I use VM's for my development platform and for my sandbox with copies of them that I can swap out (and do) on a regular basis.

Regards,

J.