WordPress multisite – What’s the ideal setup for development/staging/production environments?

Since its been so long without an answer I take its already solved, but I’ll leave something here for posterity.
I run a Multisite to a client at the agency I work for, and the setup is kinda complicated to keep up.

They way I see it, the workflow you presented is pretty much spot on. Making it modular makes it safer to maintain, but might create some difficulties with developing since you have a lot of dependencies to work with.
I’d recommend 4 things:

  • Buy db sync plugins (all free don’t support multisites)

  • Work with a Backup workflow too (so you dont lose anything, since its a complex system)

  • Create damn good organised deploys (its kinda tricky with multisites, and those backup plugins can help you achieve a smoother deploy)

  • Have a strong development checklist and merge system