Today's traffic management systems require interoperability of control units from different vendors on manifold communication infrastructures. The management of these control units is getting a complex task as different vendors supply proprietary management instrumentations (e. g. for uploading new firmware, update of contents, configuration, diagnostics and troubleshooting). A standardized data model and communication interface provides new possibilities for system owners and simplifies engineering for maintenance personnel. Additional to novel functional opportunities, a decrease in operative costs can be expected because of eased troubleshooting and update tasks. This paper summarizes the state of the art of existing application management standards and shows their applicability for the domain of traffic management systems.