Device and method for controlling a drive unit

The invention relates to a method for controlling the operation of an internal combustion engine (B), in particular of an internal combustion engine that drives a motor vehicle. According to said method, a target torque to be produced by the internal combustion engine (B) is determined in several steps. In a first step (21) a torque requested by a user is determined and modified in subsequent steps (22 - 24) by different functions, which reproduce the influences of at least one continuously determined working and/or operating parameter of the internal combustion engine (B) on the torque that is actually produced, in such a way that at the end of steps (21 - 24) the target torque required during the operation of the internal combustion engine (B) is defined and the operation of the internal combustion engine (B) and the determination of the working and/or operating parameter are monitored for errors. If errors occur, diagnostic values that describe or indicate said errors are generatedand the diagnostic values