[roc]

But the corollary is that the longer they wait to hire Alice, the worse the situation gets.

That is: they should have hired her yesterday and hiring her today won't help the current cycle, but you have to hire her today to have any hope for the future. [1]

[1] Unless you have incredibly isolated projects, in which case you can arguably put off hiring Alice until after the release, but you'll still need to bring her on well before the next one gets under way.

[matwood]

Yeah, I should have been more clear. I agree with you that hiring Alice then was the right thing to do even if late. Worst case is she can start learning the code base on her own until the current cycle finishes and the team has more time to spend with her.