YDS: Does a Scrum Master Need Technical Skills?

I would say that it would be beneficial if the SM has one or more skills that are required to create the usable, done, potentially releasable increment as they could then help out the team if they have any downtime from their SM responsibilities. Obviously it is not a requirement.

The original intent of the SM role was based upon the Toyota Chief Engineer. That skillset being as rare as it was, needed to be broken into 2 roles, a PO and a SM.

The most effective SMs I've worked with had technical capabilities. The best SMs I worked with were senior developers that were able to fill the SM role vs being a "lead" , ie they were able to be a servant leader.

As a PO I rely on the SM to be my counterpart in many ways, and the best programs I've worked on the SM was so throughout the project.

Lovely discussion! I kind of agree with you both but could hint at the perspective that Ben had to really work hard to bring something special to the table. Development skills can really help make decisions in favour of the team rather than being uninformed about some technical nitty-gritties. But yes, there are exceptions like Ben who do make it work without the technical expertise but could have amazing people skills to bring in the right balance in the tension triangle. So, it does seem like a good-to-have feature than a necessity!

Its good to have if SMs have more than & technical skills, of course this addons is going to contribute into teams goal. But SM role is all about management and works with few Scrum team as servant leader. Now there is problem between SM and developers in the team ... as neither SM or PO is managing the Scrum team as Scrum team is self-managed .... I think so