Does a scrum master need to know technicalities of the project

What does the Scrum Guide say about this? From your reading of the Guide, do you think that a Scrum Master ought to have the entire backlog ready, and be responsible for scope and stakeholder liaison?

In my opinion, the Scrum Master has no real concern about the technology.  They should have some idea what the technology is in order to help deal with impediments.  But you should not be expected to be an expert in the technology.  Your domain is the helping the team be the best they can while helping them to understand and appreciate the value of Scrum. 

As for the product backlog work, what is the Product Owner doing if they aren't managing the product backlog?  That is one of their primary responsibilities. 

Taking notes? When did Scrum Masters become the scribes for the development team?  Wouldn't the notes be more informative and accurate if one of the developers actually wrote them?

@Ian's questions are good ones.  Go the Scrum Guide, read it and find the answer to his questions.  That will clear things up for you and maybe help you to understand how to divert these things to the people that are responsible. 

Thanks Daniel and Ian.

What I did back then is have it communicated to the management that readying the backlog is not the job of SM. and that since I dont know the technology and that I can't cope up with the alien level meetings that take place. It can't be expected of me to categorize the items and circulate it to the stakeholders. Guess what, I turned out to be "not fit for the job". opinion?

<Agile coach>

The management doesn't understand the roles of Scrum and do not sound as if they want to learn them. Was there anything else that you might have been able to do that would help them to understand and appreciate the framework that they were suggesting?  I will also add that Scrum is a framework and process is up the people doing the work.  So to be honest, the note taking could fall under the 

• Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed.

I still think that the backlog management you were being asked to do is outside the Scrum Master's domain.  But these two bullets would have been somewhat applicable as activities you should have might have pursued with a bit more fervor.

• Understanding product planning in an empirical environment;
• Ensuring the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximize value;

If you could have started with getting the PO to buy in and appreciate their role in the team and shown your role as "coach" and dealing with impediments, it might have been easier to get the rest of the team to start appreciating their role.

</Agile coach>

<Personally>

Sounds like you dodged a bullet and were given an out of which you should have jumped on the opportunity to take advantage.

</Personally>

Thanks again Daniel

I then arranged meetings for the refinement, pursue PO and sit with the PO to get the PBIs ready. Have impediments logged and resolved. had effective stand ups by tracking tasks with their IDs so as to not have effort leakage. Had all the ceremonies effectively. But I guess that didn't suffice :) 

Could please help me understand this > "were given an out of which you should have jumped on the opportunity to take advantage."

If you were told you weren't a fit and removed from the role, I think I would have considered that a good thing. From your original descriptions, it sounded like you were in a no win situation and they actually helped you by removing you from the responsibility for the role. Sometimes Scrum Masters have to realize and admit that there is nothing you will be able to do and be successful.  That is something that everyone has to do at some point in their career no matter what job you are doing. But as an agile practitioner, retrospect on it.  Learn what you can from it and use that knowledge going forward.  Adapt your work (in this case move on to another opportunity) based on the new information you have acquired. 

If I misunderstood the circumstances then that statement and the above can be ignored completely.

Y K , I would say you are fortunate that your role got disconnected. Most of the managers don't know about the bigger picture of Scrum Master role. They just feel it as supporting role to whom any tasks can be given. 

I once joined one organization and on day one manager gave me client document in which roles and responsibilities of BA and Scrum Masters were mentioned but no responsibility of product owner were documented. And guess what, in this project BA and Scrum Master was essentially one & single person. They don't have product owner role. I left the organization on 2nd day and joined another organization after informing to the manager about correct scrum practices.

To list out few examples in the client document - 

1. Meeting organized and run by Scrum Master
   1.  
   2.  
   3.  
   4. Daily standup

2. Responsibilities 
   1. Change of stage of user story

BSA – Responsible

SM- Accountable

Squad(Team)- Informed

3. Giving correct user story titles

BSA – Responsible

SM- Accountable

Squad(Team)- Informed

Thank you for the response Daniel !