Any Future For Stand Alone Project Management Software?

bas says : I just read an article about Borland buying a project management software company to include in their own application life cycle tools.

Article:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5895749.html

I wondered, is there any future for stand alone project management applications to assist in software projects? I guess it would make more sense to integrate it as much as possible...

What is your opinion: any future for it?

jblack says : Although this original post is a little dated, I would like to weigh in on this one.

1. I believe there will always be the need for stand alone software. It fills a market niche. It is used in organizations that are relatively new at managing projects. This is where they start...walking before running. But as more projects get going in the pipeline, living in this stand alone world causes problems. Projects start slipping because of a lack of a project intitiation/prioritization process and the inability to resource level accross multiple projects.
2. These organizations will thrash around for a while trying to get a handle on all their projects and resources and ultimately look for a more enterprise type project management solution. So they mature and move away from the stand along environment. No worries though...other companies are just figuring out that they should get a better handle on their projects and start out on the bottom rung...with a stand alone tool.

This describes how things occur today, and probably will for quite some time. However, the process is all wrong. It is applying a bottoms up approach to project management. Organization should be taking more of a top down approach to project management. Ensuring that all projects align with the organizations strategic objectives, and will produce the desired rate of return. And that they have the man-power to deliver the projects in the targeted timeframe. If you believe this to be true, and are interested in a tool to support these Portfolio Management processes do a google search for Portfolio Server.

I swear I am in no way affiliated with either Microsoft or UMT, but I just watched a demo of this product. This is where organizations should start! Simply get a handle on the RIGHT projects before you devote time and energy to trying to better manage all of them (including the wrong ones).

Hope this helps,