You can use the launchpad as an in-circuit programmer. Pull off the jumpers and wire up Ground, Test, and Reset from the programming side of the launchpad to a 3-pin header on your board connected to the same three pins on your uC. Done. All of the same programmability and debugging as you get with a DIP uC plugged into the launchpad itself.
I think I did a little blinky test on the launchpad when I first got it, and since then it's just been used as an in-circuit programmer for surface mount parts on my own boards. I've programmed everything up to and including the MSP430G2955 in-circuit using the launchpad and just those 3 wires, including breakpoints, stepping through code line by line, dumping out registers, etc.