what are the best distributed development methodologies for sharepoint

Question

Let's say we have some distributed developers in different countries working on the same sharepoint project

problems that they might face including (but not limited to): 1. webparts deployment & debugging which doesn't work anywhere but the server. 2. how can they apply source control over created sharepoint pages and other resources. 3. Source control over Visual studio solutions. 4. accessing the designer, central admin. ....

are there any guides, best practices for such scenario?

Answer 1

What we do, and I consider this best practice, is to give all developers Remote Desktop access to a number of local development servers that each run their own local copy of Visual Studio and SharePoint.

No hassle with opening up other firewall ports and other connectivity delays.