An integrated development environment (IDE) can provide several benefits for OpenVMS development such as automating time-consuming tasks, increasing productivity, and making developers productive more quickly. Some key features of an IDE for OpenVMS include parsing to easily navigate code sections, syntax highlighting to emphasize code, auto-completion of code snippets, searching and replacing text across files and projects, and keyboard shortcuts to streamline editing. Overall an IDE is recommended for OpenVMS development as it can improve efficiency and manageability.