A simplified simulation for Andrey Salomatin's article: https://hackernoon.com/work-hard-enough-and-you-wont-finish-anything-d631d65e7478

simulation.py

DAYS = 20
DEVS_COUNT = 4
QA_COUNT = 2


def run():
    tasks = {
        'in_progress': 0,
        'testing': 0,
        'rc': 0,
        'done': 0
    }

    releases = 0
    release_days = 0
    release_durations = []

    for day in range(1, DAYS):
        release_days += 1
        tasks['in_progress'] += 3

        if day % 2 == 0:
            t = min(tasks['in_progress'], DEVS_COUNT)
            tasks['in_progress'] -= t
            tasks['testing'] += t

        if tasks['rc'] < 5:
            q = min(tasks['testing'], QA_COUNT)
            tasks['testing'] -= q
            tasks['rc'] += q
        else:
            tasks['done'] += tasks['rc']
            tasks['rc'] = 0
            releases += 1
            release_durations.append(release_days)
            release_days = 0

    print(tasks)
    print(releases)
    print(release_durations)


run()