Is Scrum Master a full time role?

It is not uncommon in a Scrum Master training classes to encounter questions such as “Is being a Scrum Master a full time role?”, or “How much time does a Scum Master contribute towards his role?”, or “Can a person from the development team multitask as a Scrum Master?”
New Scrum Masters might be apprehensive about the role that they might play as future Scrum Masters. However, certified Scrum Masters need to truly understand the responsibilities of a Scrum Master to realize the vital role played by them. The success of a Scrum project rests equally on the shoulders of the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the Development team. While the Product Owner and the Development team have their clearly established roles and responsibilities, it might seem that a Scrum Master performs only support roles such as coordinating meetings, removing impediments that are plaguing the team, or shielding the team from interference from the Product Owner.  This might make the Scrum Master seem like a glorified nanny.
Even organizations too sometimes view the Scrum Master role as a part time role. There can be several reasons why Scrum Masters are part time roles. The organization might be short of human resources to have a dedicated Scrum Master or the organization does not consider the Scrum Master’s role worthy of a full time role.
There is an obvious conflict if a developer also performs the role of a Scrum Master. This takes away the objectivity that is required in a Scrum Master while dealing with issues related to the Product Owner or even internal conflicts.
So, let’s focus on the issue where the role of Scrum Master is not considered substantial enough to be a full time role. Sprints in Scrum, unlike stages in waterfall, are intensive periods of activity where development takes place. Any impediments that are not resolved immediately can have an effect on the success or failure of a sprint. The Scrum Master not only resolves impediments as and when they arrive, but also has keen foresight to spot potential issues and create an environment that can help avoid any issues to occur.
The Scrum Master undoubtedly assumes the role of a leader. He coaches and mentors team members both at an individual and a group level to get the best out of the team. He also ensures the team collaborates smoothly and the team delivers what they committed to.
It might seem that a Scrum Master’s responsibilities are vague and general. However, most of the Scrum Master’s responsibilities are performed behind the scenes that require a strong understanding of multiple dimensions such as people, domain, and business requirements.

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Why story points are better than hours for estimation?

Adaptive planning is a key practice in Scrum methodology. This implies that extensive estimating in terms of hours, which is time consuming at the beginning of a project, is not an ideal practice onScrum projects. It is a daunting task to estimate at the beginning of a project. To determine the number of hours required even before any work is done, can not only be difficult but also be riddled with inaccuracies. It is also difficult to foresee impediments during the course of the project. Factoring time required to overcome any possible obstacles might make the estimates seem inflated. Story points reduce the effort spent on estimation so that we can get the project off the ground as quickly as possible.

Using hours for estimation can make it difficult for us to relate to the progress of the project, especially since they are the same units used to measure our work weeks. For example, if a team completes 300 hours of work in one week and 200 hours of work in the next, we might perceive that the team is slacking although that might be due to the complexity of the tasks or due to other non-project related activities such as meetings.

Story point estimates are a relative way of estimating effort for tasks. They indicate the difficulty of a particular task. Story points for a task are calculated using known tasks as frame of reference. Story points estimate the size of the story and do not necessarily have to be linked with the number of hours that might be required to complete it. This ensures that the estimation is not subjective and is a metric for the entire team rather than being based on any one individual’s proficiency.

Fibonacci numbers (1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,45 and so on) are commonly used to estimate story points. Alternately, any other sequence could be used to estimate them.

For example, if a task such as creating an input screen, for which we already know the amount of effort already required to complete, has been assigned 3 points, we use it as a frame of reference to estimate other tasks based on their perceived complexity.

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