Microsoft have recently made available various 'IT Showcase' documents which describe how things are done internally.
These documents can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/msit/default.mspx
In particular, I found those documents which describe how certain components are managed operationally, to be of interest. Specifically, papers exist which describe MS's own approach to "Schema Change Management" and "GPO Management".
neil