Interesting questions. Personally I believe teams need to have dedicated Scrum Masters and it is not a good idea to rotate Scrum Master inside the team so that team members in turns act as Scrum Master. If team is mature and don't actually even need dedicated Scrum Master - maybe. But for sure for teams which are struggling with daily practices - not a good option.
On the other hand I have met many Scrum Masters who don't even want to consider option to leave the team. Some of them are in their comfort zone. They have said to me something like
"I have finally got this team functioning well and I don't want to start from the beginning with some other team."
"I have so much fun with this team. I don't want to leave them."The last is true with me also. I had so much fun with team SP that I almost broke my heart when I decided to leave them. But I knew it was time move forward. I needed to find another team who I could coach and teach new tricks. Team SP had matured a lot and they were ready to have new Scrum Master with new ideas.
I actually believe that from time to time it is good to rotate Scrum Masters. Each and every Scrum Master is his/her own personality. All of us have read the same Scrum Guide but each and everyone of us have our own way to do things. Even if we do everything by the book we are still different. Some teams might feel irritated if their Scrum Master is switch. They might thing that their team is so well-functioning that they don't want anyone else to come and mess up their work.
But for sure something has to change. Otherwise the whole idea of rotating Scrum Masters is pointless. Even the most well-functioning teams could learn something new. And the most well-functioning teams can actually teach something to new Scrum Master as well. Rotating Scrum Masters is, in the best case, win-win situation for both teams and Scrum Masters.
Why do I take this up now? Well, our RTE (Release Train Engineer) announced this week that from the beginning of next PI (Program Increment) there is Scrum Master rotation for almost all teams. "Musical chairs" as one team don't get (note: I consider them to loser team) new Scrum Master. Even I feel I would have so much to work with team V I am also extremely excited to have possibility to start working with new team G and new Product Owner. Time to look back to Scrum Guide and consider What is a Scrum Master. Have a new start. Wau!
