Month: 2025-05 — Summary: Delivered a significant enhancement to the message processing pipeline in conductor. Implemented the Message Processing Order Enhancement (Delivery Time First), adjusting the processing order to pop messages by delivery time first and then by priority. This change ensures that messages scheduled for earlier delivery are processed before higher-priority messages scheduled for later delivery, improving fairness, timeliness, and alignment with delivery SLAs. The work involved SQL query rewrites, careful testing of ordering semantics, and code changes across the queueing logic. Accompanied by a focused commit (6dab3a00bd0e2f464a39cb1a9b4e4a379dfbc3f9). Impact: more predictable processing under load, reduced wait time for time-sensitive messages, and clearer business value demonstrated to customers relying on timely delivery.