Can the Scrum Master be a developer or an architect?
The Scrum Master can come from anywhere – the Scrum Master is sometimes on the team of developers, the Scrum Master is sometimes the Product Owner, the Scrum Master can sometimes be the functional manager. Any role that the Scrum Master occupies in addition to just being a Scrum Master causes conflict, causes difficulty for the Scrum Master because there is a conflict of interest – a dual set of responsibilities they have. However this is unavoidable, so sometimes the optimal Scrum Master is a lead engineer, this means that the lead engineer has signed up for work during the Sprint at the same time as they are committed to removing impediments for the team and if both of them take more time than is available it puts the Scrum Master / lead engineer into a conflict situation. However almost all Scrum Master’s have conflicts: that’s life.
