Checklist for starting a largeish ASP.NET MVC 3 project [closed]

Question

Currently I'm in the very beginnings of the planning stages of a project I was hired to take part in. It's fairly large, but small enough to be handled by 1 or 2 programmers and a handful of others (for design, marketing, etc.). Mostly the designers and marketers are working on their plans right now, but I have to start thinking about how I'm going to approach it.

I think I'm going to use C# and ASP.NET MVC 3 to build it. I'm familiar with C# and the MVC pattern, but haven't done a big project with this particular technology before. I'd like to build a "checklist" of things I need to look at, buy, become familiar with, etc. before starting the project:

• Database: I'm assuming that MS SQL server is the standard to use with .net, but: for larger projects, do I need to upgrade from whatever is free/comes with VS2010 express? What steps do I need to take in designing the database for use with MVC? Or LINQ?
• Testing: What testing framework is best for this type of application? What testing methodologies should I consider for a web application? How should I approach testing the models and views? Is there a difference between testing controllers from testing a class in any other application?
• Development: Is there a particular pattern/patterns which mesh well with MVC development? Do I write the models first, then the controllers? The views first, then the models? Controllers first? How do I write the application to allow for easy update rollouts?
• Deployment: What is involved in deploying a .net web application? Do I need to purchase IIS? What should I look into before deployment, wrt configuring the production server? How do I roll out updates with minimal downtime?
• Etc.: Is there anything else I should be aware of? Costs? Caveats? Books/websites I should read before ever launching VS?