The pressure to ship code, usually because of a deadline or other managerial dictates, is an ever-present and nasty force in the world of software. To the outside stakeholder or manager, a deadline is a great thing; it seems to provide certainty and accountability, but to the people working on the project, it might only be seen as enforcing unwelcome compromises. Sometimes, the first compromise that's made is that of code quality. This does not happen intentionally but is just a natural result of prioritizing completion over quality.
A stakeholder, in this context, is any individual or organization that relies on the output of your work. Usual stakeholders include project managers, other teams within the same organization, ...
