What Are Cookies Anyway?

Cookies are tiny text files—usually just a few kilobytes—that websites place on your computer or mobile device. They've been around since the mid-90s and have become a standard part of how websites work.

Each cookie contains information that the website can read when you return. Some cookies disappear when you close your browser (we call these "session cookies"), while others stick around for weeks or months ("persistent cookies").

Beyond cookies, we also use similar technologies like web beacons (tiny invisible images) and local storage. They all serve similar purposes—helping us understand how people use our site and making improvements based on that information.

Types of Cookies We Use

We've organized our cookies into four main categories. Each serves a different purpose, and some are more critical to the site's function than others.

How We Actually Use This Data

Let me walk you through some specific ways we use cookies in our day-to-day operations:

Understanding Our Audience

When someone downloads our Agile implementation guide, we track that interest. If lots of people from manufacturing companies are downloading it, that tells us we should create more content relevant to that industry. We're not collecting personal information here—just patterns that help us serve our audience better.

Improving Navigation

We watch how people move through the site. If most visitors who land on our services page immediately jump to case studies, maybe we should make those case studies more prominent. Or if people consistently abandon our contact form at a certain field, that's a sign we need to simplify it.

Testing What Works

Sometimes we'll show different versions of a page to different visitors to see which one performs better. Does a detailed explanation of our approach work better than a concise overview? Cookies help us run these tests fairly and measure the results accurately.

Staying in Touch

If you've shown interest in a particular aspect of Agile methodology—say, sprint planning—we might use that information to show you relevant content when you're browsing other sites. We're not following you around the internet; we're just trying to share information that matches your interests.

Third-Party Cookies

We don't operate in isolation. Like most websites, we work with other services that might place their own cookies on your device when you visit us.

Each of these services has its own privacy policy. While we carefully select partners who respect user privacy, we don't have direct control over their practices. We encourage you to review their policies if you're concerned about specific services.

Managing Your Cookie Preferences

You're in control of which cookies you accept. Here's how you can manage them:

Browser Settings

Every major browser lets you control cookies. The exact steps vary, but generally you'll find cookie settings under Privacy or Security preferences. You can usually choose to block all cookies, accept only first-party cookies, or get prompted each time a site wants to set a cookie.

Popular Browser Cookie Controls

Keep in mind that blocking all cookies will affect your experience on our site. Some features simply won't work, and you'll need to re-enter preferences each time you visit. It's your choice, but we wanted you to know the trade-offs.

Opt-Out Tools

Several industry organizations offer opt-out tools for advertising cookies. The Digital Advertising Alliance and Network Advertising Initiative both maintain opt-out pages where you can decline tracking from multiple advertising networks at once.

Cookie Lifespan and Storage

Different cookies stick around for different lengths of time. Here's our general approach:

• Session cookies disappear when you close your browser—they're temporary helpers for your current visit
• Functional cookies typically last between 30 days and one year, depending on what they're remembering
• Analytics cookies usually persist for up to two years to help us identify long-term trends
• Marketing cookies vary widely, from a few days to several months, depending on campaign duration

We regularly review and clean up cookies that are no longer needed. If a cookie isn't serving a clear purpose or hasn't been accessed in its expected timeframe, we remove it.

Updates to This Policy

Technology changes, our services evolve, and sometimes regulations shift. When any of these things happen, we might need to update this policy.

We'll post any changes right here on this page and update the "Last Updated" date at the top. For significant changes—like if we start using cookies in substantially different ways—we'll make that more obvious, possibly through a notification on our homepage or via email if you're a client.

We recommend checking this page occasionally, especially if you have specific concerns about how we handle data. We date every version, so you can easily see what's changed since your last visit.