Microsoft plans to shift Project Service Automation app away from Dynamics 365 portfolio

Update, March 11 2019: A response from a Microsoft spokesperson has been added  

Microsoft plans to remove Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation from the business applications portfolio, with plans to offer it in combination with other project management tools instead. That revelation came from partners who have seen the latest Dynamics 365 pricing and licensing slide deck from Microsoft.

UPDATE: A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following information on the change: 

Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation’s capabilities will be distributed into the new Project Service and Dynamics 365 for Sales to provide a deeply integrated experience for customers. At this time we do not have anything specific to offer on pricing and availability but look forward to sharing more in the future.

Microsoft has separately advised that it is updating Project with new cloud apps as part of its next generation of project management services with the Common Data Service. The first of those, Home and Roadmap, are due this year and will be part of Project Online Professional and Project Online Premium subscriptions.

Project Service Automation was added to the Dynamics 365 portfolio alongside Field Service after the FieldOne acquisition in 2015, with the features first appearing in the spring 2016. The two solutions shared some underlying technology, including the Universal Resource Scheduling engine.

The Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation app has also evolved in parallel to the AX-based service industry solution (and Project Online, as the article notes). Project Service Automation also has a standard integration to Microsoft Project as of PSA version 3.4.

For more information on the various functional and technical features around Dynamics 365 PSA, check out Kuldeep Gupta's collection of articles on MSDW.