Huh? The team is responsible for the technical practices, not the SM. The SM's
role is to ensure that the *process* is being followed, not that the product is
technically sound. If the process is being followed, it will be rather apparent
if the technical foundation is getting the job done.

Whether it's a full time job really depends on the team, and the impediments. If
the team is well-versed in the process, then less time will be required
coaching. However, a large number of impediments may still take up a lot of
time.

There are plenty of coaches that haven't played professionally, and yet manage
to lead their teams to victory. I'm a golfer. How many tournaments have Butch
Harmon, and Hank Haney won? Too few to count.

Mark

--- In scrumdevelopment@yahoogroups.com, John Goodsen <jgoodsen@...> wrote:
>
> Personally speaking, a ScrumMaster that cannot coach technical skills also
> is rarely a full-time role, because most of the work in the day is
> technical. A good coach should be able to play the game they are coaching.
> How many great sports coaches do you know that never played the game
> themselves first? If you're going to equate a SM to coach, then a good SM
> can do the technical coaching and knows how to build software.
>
> I am astonished at how many CSM's I've met that can't write code. I've seen
> them try to "coach" teams and make a friggin' technical mess as a result.
> The title Scrumaster seems to be turning into a euphanism for "manager who
> can't get a job without a certificate" from my obervations ... and the
> reason I even write this is because while the Scrum Alliance pops out a
> gazillion CSM's each year because it makes them money, the Scrum community
> as a whole is a dilution of Agile.
>
> I often think how perverted the notion of scrum master is and how many
> layed-off managers have paid good money to get that certification as a
> last-ditch resort to stay employed. I've interviewed dozens now and rarely
> find a qualified applicant.
>
> John
>
> On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 9:34 AM, Alan Dayley <alandd@...> wrote:
>
> > Good question.
> > The ScrumMaster is a team coach, not a player. The ScrumMaster is to
> > care for and improved the performance of the team. Sometimes
> > technical knowledge can be an asset to accomplish this goal.
> > Sometimes it could be a liability if he gets wrapped up in technical
> > things instead of the team. So it depends, doesn't it.
> >
> > An interesting tangent discussion of this topic is a thread from some
> > time back: "Compelling case for dedicated ScrumMaster"
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/message/32026?var=1
> >
> > Alan
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 3:40 AM, poojawandile <poojawandile@...>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I would like to hear from forum members:
> > >
> > > "Does it help to have a scum master on a team without technical
> > > background, does he/she adds value to the team?"
> > >
> > > IMO:
> > >
> > > Having a scrum master with techncial background definately is a big
> > > plus. He/she can help in resolving technical issues. Once the team has
> > > matured and understands scrum ceremonies there is not much value add
> > > from a scrum master. Day in day out the team is struggling in getting
> > > the issues resolved and focusing on sprint deliverables. For most the
> > > time they are interacting with the technical expert and since that
> > > person resolves their issues eventually helping them in completing their
> > > deliverables, he gets more visibility/credibility as against the SM. The
> > > role of a SM just gets confined to a process consultant and hence lacks
> > > visibility as well as credibility.
> > >
> > > Any takers on this?
> > >
> > > thanks,,
> > >
> > > pooja
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > To Post a message, send it to: scrumdevelopment@...
> > To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to:
> > scrumdevelopment-unsubscribe@...! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> John Goodsen RADSoft / Better Software Faster
> jgoodsen@... Lean/Agile/XP/Scrum Coaching and Training
> http://www.radsoft.com Ruby on Rails and Java Solutions
>