Selective catalytic reduction systems are known and are generally included in exhaust systems of diesel engines in order to treat the exhaust gases of such engines. Such systems involve the introduction of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) into exhaust gas flowing in an exhaust passage of an engine. When dosing DEF onto a hydrolysis catalyst in a SCR system, the DEF will under certain conditions cool the hydrolysis catalyst sufficiently to either slow down or effectively prevent ammonia release, which creates a lag or delay in the function of the hydrolysis catalyst. This limits the amount of control which can be exerted over ammonia storage in the SCR catalyst, and NOx conversion. In a first step, a set of measurement data is received from one or more sensors provided in the system. Subsequently, a first set of characteristics associated with a state of a component of the catalytic system, a second set of characteristics associated with an output of the catalytic system and a third set of characteristics associated with a bias and a scaling factor in the system are derived. In a third step, the derived sets of characteristics are used to control the catalytic system.