During the last decade, striking improvements could be achieved for the precise control of deposition processes in optical coating technology. For example, as a consequence of enormous progresses in measurement and computer technology, direct optical monitoring in a broad spectral range can be considered as a common tool in many production environments nowadays. Besides the development of the corresponding hardware and measurement channels, advanced approaches for the evaluation of the acquired data and new multiple sensor monitoring strategies moved into the focus of modern research on the way towards deterministic deposition techniques. In this context, also innovative concepts for the simulation of deposition processes to forecast the result for a specified coating design and automatic online correction algorithms gained of importance to reduce the risk of failure in coating production. The present contribution will be dedicated to selected aspects in this field, especially addressing broad band optical monitoring systems. A short review on examples for existing hardware configurations and software tools will be presented illustrating the advantages of modern process control techniques. Novel approaches based on the modeling of thin film growth are discussed as an additional strategy to improve the predictability of coating processes.