Traditional deployment

There are two ways to deploy code to test in a sandbox or production environment:

• Change sets: A change set is used to move changes from a development sandbox to a production environment. Change sets do not contain data. Change sets are best for deploying the same components to multiple organizations. Change sets are good for small deployments, but not preferred for large deployments. The Force.com Migration Tool can be used for large deployments as deployment components can be easily managed.
• Force.com Migration Tool: Using the Force.com Migration Tool requires some setup. It is scriptable, so it is used for a multistage release process, where we can easily have scripted retrieval and deployment of components. Repetitive deployments using the parameters can be done. We can retrieve all metadata in the organization, make changes using the editor, and deploy the same subset of components.