The effective theory of an open boson or fermion system is studied, which evolves out of equilibrium with time-dependent Hamiltonian
H^(t). A measure of nonequilibrium temperature for the open system evolving from an equilibrium is proposed as the time-averaged energy expectation value
T(t)=Ti(<H^(t)>Ψˉ/<I^(t)>Ψˉ), where
I^(t), the action operator, satisfies the quantum Liouville-von Neumann equation and determines the true density operator. It recovers the result for the adiabatic (quasi-equilibrium) and nonadiabatic (out of equilibrium) evolution from one static Hamiltonian to another and takes into account the particle production due to the intermediate processes.