A design procedure is presented in which the performance of a dynamic system is optimized without using excessively complex controllers. The control is constrained to be an easily implementable feedback arrangement involving unspecified time-invariant parameters. By applying the calculus of variations, a set of necessary conditions for optimization with respect to these parameters is obtained in the form of a non-linear two-point boundary valne problem. If the resultant performance is unsatisfactory, the complexity of the controller is increased until a compromise between optimization and ease of implementation is achieved.