A Model-driven Approach to Continuous Practices for Modern Cloud-based Web Applications

In this paper, we propose a model-driven approach to Continuous Software Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) for modern cloud-based applications. Key to our approach is a formal graphical modelling language for the specification of the processes and tasks involved. Based on these specifications the complete CI/CD configurations are generated fully and automatically guaranteeing their correctness with regard to the specification by construction. This way typical sources of critical errors can be avoided lowering the hurdle to introduce CI/CD especially in mature projects. We demonstrate the power of our model-driven approach with the help of an industrial web application – a prime example for cloud-based applications.