Why do so many people who manage projects of various kinds shy away from using collaboration and project management tools?

This is what my analysis and observation makes me believe:

1. The upbringing issue

Most project managers are not blessed by an organisation culture that lets them be any better than fire fighters.
and fire fighters may rather write their memoirs after retirement than writing it down while they are fighting the fire.

2.The solution provider-consumer gap

while none can deny the immediate acceptance of good collaboration tools by many PMs, the fate of Project Management tools has not been so good.The primary reason is that these PM tools are developed to cater to PM standards(PMI,PRINCE2,AGILE,Adaptive etc.)  and NOT the end-user or the end-organization/industry environment.

This adds up to the initial resistance that Project managers(or any body for that matter) have towards 'change'

3.Impatience

Any change initiative takes time to be accepted and to register any ROI.
Most organizations break their backs midway in the change cycle..the unfortunate 'PM Tool' becomes the obvious victim in such cases

4.Miscellaneous

a. Shoot the messenger and other negative attitudes of top management may push the project managers way off the enterprise knowledge sharing system

b.Surprisingly in many solution implementations a BIG aspect is missed out --- Reward policy for contributing information/knowledge to the knowledge repository.

c.Project management tools( barring a few) have yet to reach a maturity level where they become almost  invisible to the end -user and highly adaptable to the end-organization PM methodologies

d.last BUT NOT THE LEAST ...different projects have different documentation & collaboration needs based on their size,complexity,team size etc....But ironically many organizations don't have policies & guidelines to help project managers choose the RIGHT amount of communication,documentation and collaboration for small,medium and large projects.

Basically, the shyness starts with egoistic need to establish and succeed independently in the society. This trend once habituated, lead to avoidance of collaboration in all future ventures. Other factors may be lack of trust with others, inability to communicate, failure to see the greatest business opportunities, Mega cultural variations esp. for international collaborations, lack of vision and strategy and ambiguous business objectives.
 

However, things are rapidly changing. Collaborations have become a way of life. Dependency on the partners have increased. Survival of the fittest has become the order of the day. Situation and time has come for everyone to join the band and use the best.

IMO, lack of collaboration and lack of the ability to "inspect and adapt" thinking ==> closed thinking and a tendency not to stay in sync with the stakeholders.

by not staying in sync- I mean real-time data sync. I have seen/heard reasons all attributed to someone else ..other than self...for not being allowed to do all this.

If as  project Manager/Program Manager/Product Manager - you are not allowed to bring in the value-add..or if the environment forestalls any such value-add..at the altar of "budget"..it sure sucks!

They better hire a fresh-off-the-boat-and-dyed-in-the-wool business school graduate....than have us folks...to maintain and bolster the "budgets".

All in all, its one's own tendency not to rock the boat and eternally trying to be a follower, that is the most significant factor for lack of adoption. Dare to try and be the change and u will be suprised at how the perceived " unmoving walls that need to be convinced" crumble into dustpowder.

There are various factors  look at it for understanding the reasons for not using Colloboration and Project Management Tools.

Analysis  details : 

There is a great difficulty /Challenge for PMs to sell project Management to Senior executives due to varied expectations.

Also refer the article which I had published Subject -    "Challenges in Selling Project Management to Senior Executives"   in the PM Comittee.

Executives / Senior Magement  looks at the usage of project mangement tools in terms of  strategic advantage.  Also the size of the projects , the nature of the projects, Longevity of projects,and their conflicting needs  within various portfolios/Conflicting needs within various divisions within the organization

Executives look at  at answers for the following before getting convinced for Authorizing.

Do the organization have enough funds ? 

 Does  Usage of Project Management Tools  yield Higher ROI ?  - INVESTMENT Comprises, Tool costs , Training costs etc.

What is the BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio) ?

 Does  it increase the Profit Margin ?

Does it reduce the Manufacturing Costs ?

Does it accelerate delivery  by Increasing Productivity ?

Does it Support Market Expansion ?

Is their a feasibility of the setup/process be applied after customizing, consistenly across all projects within various  portfolios

 to meet the varied nature of  indiviudal project demands. ?       (Various PPM Tools  are also available in the market)