Bill Allbee serves as a lecturer in the online Master of Science in Information Technology Project Management (ITPM) degree program. He comes to Purdue from a career in drug development project management.
Allbee teaches “Program and Portfolio Management” as well as the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification courses. He holds an master's degree in project management and has been PMP certified for over 15 years. He owns his own consulting firm, which provides project management support and training services for small to mid-size companies.
Allbee approaches his classes with a servant mindset, he says, and his first priority is to get to know his students.
“I want to get to know my students so I can be more proactive in addressing the unique challenges they face as student, professionals, parents, and spouses,” he says.
While this may be a challenge for online education, he crafts his course to ensure maximum engagement and provide a personal dialogue with his students. His passion is to engage and empower students to be successful.
Since all projects are unique, Allbee’s philosophy is to move his students out of their comfort zones into challenging and real-life scenarios that are educational as well as practical.
“I ask questions such as, 'If you were presented with this scenario, how would you manage this?' or 'this is happening now because one of your team members did this, what’s next?'” he says.
IT project managers are in great demand; data also shows that over 50 percent of IT projects fail. Allbee believes the ITPM program can help that statistic.
"The percentage will decrease in the companies our graduate students are employed with after they earn their master's degree at Purdue," he says. "The ITPM program provides the education and tools that provide students the tools to set goals, be better problem solvers, manage change, hold themselves and their teams accountable and above all, be better communicators."