1. A method for determining a selected machining quality of components in a manufacturing process, particularly during metal cutting, having at least the following method steps: determining process-relevant variables by sensors and/or from the data stream in the machine controller; the process-relevant variables being motor currents, rotational speeds and/or cutting forces; creating a time series for each of the process-relevant variables; extracting variable curves characteristic for the respective machining process from the time series for at least two of the process-relevant variables, wherein selecting a number of different characteristics of the extracted variable curves, with the characteristic variable curves being divided into a number of sections, with the respective lengths of the sections, the linear regression coefficients, and the variance of the residues around the regression lines being selected as characteristics, and multivariate linking of the selected characteristics to a characteristic pattern correlating with the selected machining quality.