Abstract:Time management is a crucial part of workflow management software systems, and is also a serious limitation in applying workflow technologies to complex enterprises. Doing researches for time modeling is important to enhance the flexibility of workflow management software systems, to guarantee workflow plan to be efficiently executed and to make enterprises more competitive. The key of time management lies in whether time information is effectively modeled. This paper first introduces the time issues in workflow systems,then surveys the actual atatus of time of time modeling and analysis,Which invile how time constraints to be modeled and analyzed,how temporal consistency to be verified and time violations to be handled.Based in the evaluation of existing research methods,we indicate the developing trends of time management in workflow systems.Supporting for time managent provides a good guidance for developing high flexible and practical workflow management systems.