diff --git a/.github/dependabot.yml b/.github/dependabot.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f7ebebbc2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/dependabot.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#
+#  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+#  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+#  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+#  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+#  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+#  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+#  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+#  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+#  limitations under the License.
+#
+# Please see the documentation for all configuration options:
+# https://help.github.com/github/administering-a-repository/configuration-options-for-dependency-updates
+#
+version: 2
+updates:
+- package-ecosystem: maven
+  directory: "/"
+  schedule:
+    interval: daily
+    time: '04:00'
+  ignore:
+    # ignore Java 8+ dependencies
+    - dependency-name: org.mockito:mockito-core
+      versions:
+        - ">= 3.0"
+    - dependency-name: org.apache.commons:commons-lang3
+      versions:
+        - ">= 3.9"
+    - dependency-name: commons-io:commons-io
+      versions:
+        - ">= 2.7"
+    # Ignore Maven 3.2.1+
+    - dependency-name: org.apache.maven.plugin-testing:maven-plugin-testing-tools
+      versions:
+        - ">=3.2.0"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it1.yml b/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it1.yml
index 1fac3d0f36..d801ea21d9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it1.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it1.yml
@@ -19,11 +19,10 @@ name: GitHub CI for Windows 1
 
 on:
   push:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
+    branches-ignore:
+      - dependabot/**
   pull_request:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
+
 
 jobs:
   build:
@@ -39,9 +38,11 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v1
 
       - name: Set up JDK 1.8
-        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
+        uses: actions/setup-java@v2.4.0
         with:
-          java-version: 1.8
+          distribution: 'temurin'
+          java-version: 8
+          cache: 'maven'
 
       - name: Build with Maven
         run: mvn clean install -e -B -V -nsu --no-transfer-progress -P run-its "-Dit.test=**/jiras/*IT*.java,TestMethodPatternIT,TestMultipleMethodPatternsIT,TestMultipleMethodPatternsTestNGIT"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it2.yml b/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it2.yml
index 7faa862703..3056c9abda 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it2.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/maven-windows-it2.yml
@@ -19,11 +19,9 @@ name: GitHub CI for Windows 2
 
 on:
   push:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
+    branches-ignore:
+      - dependabot/**
   pull_request:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
 
 jobs:
   build:
@@ -39,9 +37,11 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v1
 
       - name: Set up JDK 1.8
-        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
+        uses: actions/setup-java@v2.4.0
         with:
-          java-version: 1.8
+          distribution: 'temurin'
+          java-version: 8
+          cache: 'maven'
 
       - name: Build with Maven with Install
         run: mvn clean install -e -B -V -nsu --no-transfer-progress -DskipTests
diff --git a/.github/workflows/maven.yml b/.github/workflows/maven.yml
index cc385131cd..f31d5382fb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/maven.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/maven.yml
@@ -19,11 +19,10 @@ name: GitHub CI for *Nix
 
 on:
   push:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
+    branches-ignore:
+      - dependabot/**
   pull_request:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
+
 
 jobs:
   build:
@@ -31,7 +30,8 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       matrix:
         os: [ubuntu-latest, macOS-latest]
-        java: [8, 11, 15]
+        java: [8, 11, 17]
+        jdk: [temurin, zulu]
       fail-fast: false
 
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
@@ -42,9 +42,11 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v1
 
       - name: Set up JDK ${{ matrix.java }}
-        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
+        uses: actions/setup-java@v2.4.0
         with:
+          distribution: ${{ matrix.jdk }}
           java-version: ${{ matrix.java }}
+          cache: 'maven'
 
       - name: Build with Maven
         run: mvn clean install -e -B -V -nsu --no-transfer-progress -P run-its -Dfailsafe-integration-test-port=8083
diff --git a/.github/workflows/smoketest.yml b/.github/workflows/smoketest.yml
index e8a40b7cbf..faae99f410 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/smoketest.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/smoketest.yml
@@ -19,11 +19,9 @@ name: Unit Tests
 
 on:
   push:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
+    branches-ignore:
+      - dependabot/**
   pull_request:
-    branches:
-      - '**'
 
 jobs:
   build:
@@ -35,10 +33,12 @@ jobs:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v1
 
-      - name: Set up JDK 16
-        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
+      - name: Set up JDK 17
+        uses: actions/setup-java@v2.4.0
         with:
-          java-version: 16
+          distribution: 'temurin'
+          java-version: 17
+          cache: 'maven'
 
       - name: Build with Maven
         run: mvn clean install -e -B -V -nsu --no-transfer-progress -P run-its -DskipITs