For a single input system, one can use a direct relationship to find the controller gain K by using Ackermann's formulation, accordingly

with	(25.12)
and

where, d_i are the coefficients of the desired characteristic polynomial as given in eqn. (25.7).

When, as a special case, the characteristic polynomial of the open-loop plant and the desired characteristic polynomial are known apriori one can use the well-known Bass-Gura technique to obtain the control gain vector K as