Component-based software has a self-similar structure on el of abstraction, i.e. its structure is fractal. Traditional software processes, however, have a linear or iterated structure, and are thus not very well suited for component-based software development. Here, processes described by languages of patterns fit better. To ensure a general understanding and easy applicability of processes patterns, I propose to (1) build on the well known description schemes for traditional product patterns and adapt them to the software process domain; and (2) use the description techniques and notions of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is “the lingua franca of the software engineering community”. Some adaptations and extensions become necessary to both of these, however, and care has to be taken not to impede the goal of universal understandability.