How and where should i start to become a project manager/IT manager?

Dear Mr. Frances

Please read this article which I hope will help you sure on making your firm decision

http://toostep.com/insight/career---not-just-the-job

No one except you is the right one to suggest you any career, career is what you are within..

Dear Frances following are the things that i think will be helpful to you.

1.Be A leader

aaaLeaders share and communicate a common vision (of some future state); they gain agreement and establish the forward direction. They motivate others. Managers are results driven and focus on getting work done against agreed requirements. A good project manager will constantly switch from a leader to a manager as situations require.

2.Be a problem solver

This is a skill that can be learned, it just needs a little "detective" work up-front! You will want to first identify the possible "causes" that lead to the problem "symptom." Now, causes can come from a variety of sources, some are:

• Interpersonal problems
• Internal sources
• External sources
• Technical sources
• Management sources
• Communication
• Opinions or perceptions

...and so on. The next step having found the root causes is to analyse possible options and alternatives, and determine the best course of action to take. Take care to agree what "best" really means here!

5. Be an Excellent Communicator

Being a communicator means recognising that it's a two-way street. Information comes into the project and information goes out of the project. A good way of summarising this is that all communications on your project should be clear and complete. As a project manager you will have to deal with both written and oral communications. Some examples are documents, meetings, reviews, reports, and assessments. A good mental guideline is "who needs this information, who gathers and delivers it, when or how often do they need it, and in what form will I give it to them."

6. Be a Good Organiser

Let's just think of the aspects you will need to organise; project filing including all documentation, contracts, e-mails, memo's, reviews, meetings, specialist documents, requirements and specifications, reports, changes, issues, risks, etc. It's almost impossible to stay organised without having time management skills, so add this to your list!

7. Be a Competent and Consistent Planner

The skill of planning can't be underestimated, and neither can estimating! There are known and logical steps in creating plans. As a project manager you will certainly own the project plan, but there may be others depending upon the project. e:

1. Plans are always documents, don't fall into the trap of thinking that, for example, a Gantt chart is a plan - its only a schedule diagram.
2. Successful projects are delivered by successful teams. Always use the team to help create the plan unless, rarely, there is a good reason why not, such as commercial confidentiality, or contractual conditions.

8. Set-up and Manage Budgets

At the heart of this is the skill of estimating, particularly cost estimates. Nearly always the project manager will need certain knowledge of financial techniques and systems along with accounting principles.

Hope these things will help you, do tell me if above things come handy for you.I'll wait for your response!