Characteristics of a commercial metal hydride (MH) hydrogen supply system have been investigated and an operating strategy was developed based on the experimental data. As a prior step, charging/discharging capacity, thermal properties such as heat capacity, heat of reaction of MH system were experimentally measured. And then P-C-T data for various operating conditions were collected and a correlation between P, C and T predicting the behavior of MH was derived. Based on the basic experimental data, an operating strategy of MH system was developed, in which the hot water temperature supplied into the water jacket of MH was controlled depending on the pressure of MH, thereby the pressure of MH could be maintained at a suitable range. By adjusting the temperature of hot water from $40^{circ}C$ to $60^{circ}C$, the maximum discharging capacity of hydrogen could be increased by 4.7%, and consequently more stable hydrogen supply and longer operation time of fuel cell system could be achieved.