In 2011, Dr. Alford sat with ten women who were doing leadership work inside technology organizations and recorded what they actually described — not what he expected to find, and not what the literature suggested he might find. What came back was a precise map of something the system had never formally named. That map became the foundation of the TheDrCed ProFile™, of XylaWorks, and of every question Dr. Alford brings to a direct engagement. It has not been set aside. It has been tested against thirty years of practice inside the same organizations it documented.
See how the research applies to you
Ten women. IT leadership. Dallas–Fort Worth. Seven Black, three white. Each had been in her role for a minimum of three years. None of them were titled executives — they were doing leadership work without the formal recognition that should have reflected it, and they knew the difference.
The methodology followed where they led. Sixty to ninety minute recorded interviews, transcribed and analyzed using a modified Van Kaam phenomenological approach — which means the framework emerged from what they described, not from what the researcher expected to find.
Ten themes came back. None of them have been resolved by the fifteen years that followed. The organizations adapted. The pattern found new expressions. The research stayed accurate.
Women and I.T. Careers: Why Women Are Leaving the Ranks of I.T. Careers and Why It's So Important They Stay
Published in 2015 — before the industry conversation about women in technology reached any serious mainstream volume, and before most of the frameworks now used to address it were written. The dissertation research, made accessible.
The 2011 research produced a framework. That framework is the architecture of both companies Dr. Alford runs. XylaWorks makes it accessible at scale — for any professional, at any career stage. The TheDrCed ProFile™ is the direct version: Dr. Alford, in conversation with one person, applying the full weight of the research and thirty years of practice to their specific record and situation.
An AI-powered career intelligence platform that evaluates a professional's complete identity across three dimensions — producing assessment, strategy, market intelligence, and career documents. Available to professionals at every career level.
Visit XylaWorks →A direct engagement with Dr. Alford — the research, the framework, and his perspective applied to one professional's specific career. The TheDrCed ProFile™ is what that engagement produces. The strategy is what she carries forward.
Start the engagement →Dr. Cedric D. Alford is President and CEO of both TheDrCed Leadership Development LLC and XylaWorks, Inc. Both companies are built on the same question he has been asking since 2011 — and the same refusal to stop asking it.
