Operationalizing a goal includes receiving the goal and execution rules associated with the goal, where one or more execution rules correspond to an execution system operable to initiate execution of the execution rules. The goal is represented in a representation language that includes a set of operations. An operation of the set of operations is applied to the goal to partition the goal into subgoals. For each subgoal, an operation of the set of operations is applied to the subgoal to derive and configure one or more execution rules associated with the subgoal. The goals, the applied operations, the subgoals, and the execution rules are recorded as operationalized knowledge to operationalize the goal.