I'm trying to determine the "best" method for creating a development instance of DNN that will provide me all the tools and modules of the production instance and allow me to migrate code, pages and content from the dev instance to the production instance when desired.  

I've read anything I can find for the past hours or so, but I have not been able to concretely find my answer.  As a long time developer, I am used to going from a dev to test then to production migration path for new work.  I have an instance of 6.x that has three portals.  Each is substantially different in content and design , but sharing the same DNN instance. For security and safety I want to perform all development work in the dev environment.  In DNN to me that means, I'll install and test new modules, change design skins and containers and create new pages.  Then I want to migrate to production.  

What is the closest that I can come to the more traditional dev-->test-->production migrations and how to accomplish same.  If someone can point me to an article or similar that would be great.