One approach is stubbing out the services you don't need. This article by a Heroku engineer describes how to do this at the Rack level: https://brandur.org/ser

One approach is stubbing out the services you don't need. This article by a Heroku engineer describes how to do this at the Rack level: https://brandur.org/service-stubs https://brandur.org/service-stubs Another approach is creating a set of shared services that developers can use rather than deploying their own instances. This article by a LinkedIn engineer describes their internal Quick Deploy system: http://engineering.linkedin.com/developer-productivity/quick-deploy-distributed-systems-approach-developer-productivity http://engineering.linkedin.com/developer-productivity/quick... Personally, though, I'd go the route of creating a self-contained Vagrant setup if possible. This helps folks become familiar with the entire system and fix bugs anywhere in it, rather than drawing strict lines of ownership around specific services.