I'm always wary of stories such as this one. Everytime I encountered people complaining they were doing everything by the book while that one guy/gal over there gets all the credit doing mediocre work, there were more variables involved. Maybe H is a close friend and S has a bitchy resting face the author can't get past, or maybe H takes so long polishing his/her code and understanding business requirements that management never trust him/her with bigger tasks, while S gets the proverbial thing done fast and good enough for the business meeting next week. Don't get me wrong, I love me some beautiful and tested code that works well, but it takes time, and sometimes time is imperative when you care about money, and in a business setting, that's always.