up and running, in no time

Reading Java Development with Ant
Chapter 1 - Introducing Ant

Page 14
"Being capable of quickly getting a new development environment up and running is a sign that your project is on the right track."

At a first glance, this may seem to be a trivial task to do. It may be a trivial task for a small scale Java project, but for a large scale J2EE project, this may very well be a non trivial task to do. Can we really perform this consistently even for a large scale J2EE project? The answer to the question remains to be seen.

It's quite a challenge for any Project Manager to make sure that the above quote does happen for his/her project. But, unless a careful planning, and continuing integration is in place, it's an impossible thing to do.

Can we really do it?
Can a new developer who joins the project which started weeks/months earlier, immediately pick up the latest development source code and environment, and set it up in his new PC/laptop, and have it clean compiled and run smoothly within an hour?

I think it's quite a big challenge..