Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers for stabilizing a process variable are a standard feature in the most common software packages for controlling technical facilities. However, PID controllers are limited by oscillations relating to the noise of an actual value determined in the controlling process. The new stepwise-immediate-follower (SIF) concept enables much smaller control errors. Measurement values that can be automatically determined in the system are used to adjust the SIF. The optimum control parameters to be adjusted and the achievable standard deviation of the process variable can be derived from these values. SIF is a general control technique and can be integrated into many applications with software-based control.