1. A method for automatic extraction of process goals from a semantically annotated structured process model of a process comprising model elements comprising functions and events named by natural language expressions and annotated with semantic linkages to a reference process ontology comprising the steps of: (a) splitting said process model, at each exit split connector that leads to more than one end event, into a plurality of partial process models separated for each end event of said process model, such that each partial process model of the plurality of partial process models has one or more of the model elements and only one end event; (b) creating for each partial process model an annotated partial process model by separately annotating the one or more of the model elements of each partial process model with extracted process goals and constraints, such that (1) each start event is annotated with an extracted root goal constraint, (2) each function is annotated with an extracted process goal, (3) each event is annotated with an extracted local goal constraint, and (4) the end event is annotated with an extracted root goal, wherein each process goal represents a purpose or an outcome of process; (c) decoupling of the process goals from each annotated partial process model; and (d) generating a hierarchical process goal tree for each annotated partial process model by organizing the decoupled process goals as goal nodes into the hierarchical process goal tree starting with the end event as a root goal node that is decomposed into a set of subgoals by inserting the goal nodes and decomposition nodes into the goal tree depending on the annotated model elements detected.