The invention relates to a method for controlling a technical process using a controller (12) which produces a manipulated variable (S), wherein a controlled variable (R) is approximately a step function on the basis of the manipulated variable (S), in the case of which the controlled variable (R) forms a first plateau with virtually identical values in a first section (13) of a range of values of the manipulated variable (S), has a steep transition from the first plateau to a second plateau with likewise virtually identical values in a second section (14) of the range of values of the manipulated variable (S), and forms the second plateau in a third section (15) of the range of values of the manipulated variable (S). The invention provides for the step function to be approximated by means of an approximation function (f) in the form of a sigmoid function, for an inverse function (f
1 ) to be formed for the approximation function, for the controlled variable (R) and a reference variable (F), which represents a desired value for the controlled variable (R), to be transformed into an auxiliary controlled variable (R
h ) and into an auxiliary reference variable (F
h ) by means of the inverse function; and for the auxiliary controlled variable (R
h ) and the auxiliary reference variable (F
h ) to serve the controller as a basis for determining the manipulated variable (S).