Entrepreneurial Question

Project management can be thought of as a system to help you address all individual parts of a project in a timely, organized (and document-able fashion). This is done by planning ahead, risk management, breaking down the work processes to manageable bits, assigning people to specific jobs, defining clear lines of communication, following up on plans and changes to plans, and trying to avoid a situation where your options are entirely snuffed out by a Series of (Unforeseen and) Unfortunate Events.

The tools for this are easily learned about. Using them don't come naturally to a lot of people, and that includes project members who are asked to supply information for the spreadsheets. The thinking ahead and people handling skills, including the managing-the-management or boss skills don't come easily to most people either.

You can learn a lot about project management by reading a decent book on it, and applying what you learn to smaller, normal projects, like studying for an exam, or arranging a party, applying to college, clearing out the attic... Projects don't have to involve more than one person, but as people handling is such an important part of project management you should definitely try to get some leadership and team work experience too.

I'm not sure if it's possible to list any skills necessary for this. I think that for most people it's more about being willing to develop an analytic  and questioning mind, beside working on people skills. For larger projects it's quite common to split the management role in a People manager and a QA manager as it's rare to find all qualities in one person with enough work capacity to do both! For technical projects, obviously having the technical background is a huge advantage, and without it you's need a technical expert on the team.

Thanks Inger