I was asked how organise environments (Dev, Test, Prod) .
My preference is to use BIDS (or Data Tools) as Dev environment, where developer can create and modify report without deployment. Then I create 2 solution environments using Configuration Managers. On SSRS server I create 2 or more folders Test and Prod and setup deployment path in the Configuration Managers. When report looks good enough I deploy it to Test folder of SSRS. Then I create Visual Studio unit test to run report in Test folder. When test is passed I deploy report to Prod folder.
Again, Visual Studio (BIDS) is not testing placeholder. I do not use this tool in VS directly. I just create project type unit test which invokes the tool. The tool analyses SSRS folder content, run report through web services, creates linked reports in that folder, etc.
My preference is to use BIDS (or Data Tools) as Dev environment, where developer can create and modify report without deployment. Then I create 2 solution environments using Configuration Managers. On SSRS server I create 2 or more folders Test and Prod and setup deployment path in the Configuration Managers. When report looks good enough I deploy it to Test folder of SSRS. Then I create Visual Studio unit test to run report in Test folder. When test is passed I deploy report to Prod folder.
Again, Visual Studio (BIDS) is not testing placeholder. I do not use this tool in VS directly. I just create project type unit test which invokes the tool. The tool analyses SSRS folder content, run report through web services, creates linked reports in that folder, etc.