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Melissa BenuaQueen of Code

Blog & Insights

Thoughts, strategies, and reflections on engineering leadership and technical excellence.

Context Is the Spec: Planning and Defining 'Good' for AI-Assisted Development

The quality of what comes out of an agentic workflow is directly proportional to the quality of what goes in. Here's what that looks like in practice -- and why the spec is your highest-ROI engineering investment.

Planning
Agentic Development
Engineering Fundamentals
CI/CD
February 25, 2026

Safety Is Speed: Why the Boring Parts of Engineering Just Became the Most Important Parts

Everyone's looking for the right AI tool. The teams shipping fastest with agents aren't the ones who found the best model. They're the ones who already had strong engineering fundamentals in place.

Agentic Development
Engineering Fundamentals
CI/CD
Leadership
February 18, 2026

Building Teams That Thrive

Key strategies for creating engineering teams that are resilient, innovative, and focused on outcomes.

Teams
Culture
Leadership
Management
March 22, 2023

The Evolution of Engineering Leadership

How the role of engineering leaders has transformed in the era of remote work and AI-assisted development.

Leadership
Remote Work
AI
January 15, 2023

Melissa on WeHackPurple Podcast!

An engaging discussion on security, testing, and engineering leadership

Podcast
Security
Testing
Leadership
August 15, 2020

Migrating 'Mature' Code to Continuous Delivery

Strategies for modernizing legacy codebases and adopting CD practices

Continuous Delivery
Legacy Code
DevOps
Software Architecture
June 8, 2020

3 Test Design Principles for Continuous Integration

Essential guidelines for creating tests that support rather than hinder your CI process

Testing
Continuous Integration
DevOps
Test Design
April 14, 2020

When is a Null Not a Null?

Exploring the subtle differences in null handling across programming languages and databases

Programming
Databases
Data Types
Best Practices
March 15, 2020

Integration Tests: What's in a Name?

What is an integration test? And why is it critical to our continuous delivery efforts?

Testing
Integration Tests
Continuous Delivery
Software Quality
February 10, 2020

Who Needs Code Coverage?

Understanding when code coverage metrics help and when they hurt your testing strategy

Testing
Code Coverage
Software Quality
Metrics
January 22, 2020

Fuzz Testing for Online Services

Applying randomized testing techniques to improve the reliability and security of web applications

Testing
Security
Fuzz Testing
Web Services
October 28, 2019

Manual Testing is Dead

Why manual testing practices need to evolve in the age of continuous delivery

Testing
Automation
Continuous Delivery
Quality Assurance
September 12, 2019