A system and method for the automated provisioning of software applications onto one or more computers. The provisioning system uses a model of the application, which describes the application in terms of its software features and the actions to manipulate the application. The model preferably describes this information in a general way, such that it is independent of any environmental characteristics associated with the computers. The provisioning system also receives as input a set of references to selected ones of the computers onto which the application is to be provisioned.