Imagine that one morning, while you’re in the shower getting ready for work, you’re ignited by an idea for an amazing new application. Ablaze with excitement, you want to start building your app immediately. There’s no doubt that you’re going to build and distribute your application on Force.com. After all, it’s faster than building apps on Java or .NET! Having decided upon a platform for your app, you call up your best friend Dave and convince him to join you in your new entrepreneurial adventure.

Now, the two of you just have to figure out how to build your brilliant new app together as a team. To help you with that part of the process, we’ve created a new resource – an Introduction to Developing Commercial Apps on Force.com.

The article discusses the main components of a team-based commercial application development process on Force.com: Developer Environments, the Force.com IDE and a Source Code Control System. It highlights how managed packages can be used to distribute your application once it's complete, as well as how to put these components together and create a team development process that looks like this:

The Introduction to Developing Commercial Apps on Force.com article is focused squarely on teams that are developing applications to be sold to external customers. If you’re an IT Architect, Administrator, or Developer, you should read the Development Lifecycle Guide instead. It describes Release Management, the Application Lifecycle, Development Environments, Tools, Testing, Deploying to Production, and more – all from the perspective of an IT team.

I hope you enjoy an Introduction to Developing Commercial Apps on Force.com.  Ping me if you're ablaze, or if you'd like me to add additional material, or would like a follow up article focusing on a particular aspect of development.