Hi
We’ve used Multiple SIte Manager for the first time on a recent project, still ongoing. On the whole it works like a charm for us, there were just a few issues while we were getting used to it:
1. When configuring users etc. in the admin area, be sure you’re working in the correct site (there’s a drop down menu which lets you select the site). I had an embarrassing 10 minutes in front of the client when I was setting her up as a user but not able to log her in to the correct site - turns out I set her up as a user for a different site.
2. We checked religiously that all addons we purchased were compatible with MSM and found no problems
3. I had an issue with being locked out of the admin area after logging out and logging in regularly as different users. Turns out it was an issue with cookies - cleared the cookies and all OK.
Regarding workflow, whether all your developers are on site or geographically spread I think DVCS is a must. We are using a Mercurial repo hosted on BitBucket, the offsite dev and I just pull and push updates to keep site files in sync. All templates are stored as files. I use SourceTree (mac only) app to manage the repo because I’m a designer and prefer GUI to command line. I also use SourceTree to keep files in sync between my office machine and laptop.
For managing the workflow we use Trello. With several developers you may prefer something different, a friend of mine down the corridor is a consultant in agile development and scrum. I don’t pretend to know much about either but it seems like one good approach to managing the workflow with a team of your size.
Hope this helps.