Embodiments of the present invention relate to an integrated development environment (IDE)-based approach for testing development projects (e.g., comprising one or more intended workloads). In a typical embodiment, a designation of a project (e.g. having a set of workloads) for testing on a network resource group is received via a user interface associated with an IDE. A current server instance in the network resource group having a highest availability for testing the project may then be identified (e.g., based on an analysis of various computing/cost characteristics). The project may then be deployed to the current server instance, and a network address corresponding to the current server instance may be associated with the project in a computer storage device. The project may then be tested by processing the set of intended workloads using the current server instance.