If you are starting in the MOSS or WSS development adventure there is good info on the web on procedures, environments, tools, good practices, etc. One of those is a White Paper from Microsoft called “Implementing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Solutions”
“This document outlines a methodology for team SharePoint development combining custom code and content, with the aim of accelerating implementation and mitigating production risks.“
You can download this document here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=65F21935-CBC0-4178-8C08-4C56F721C87D&displaylang=en).