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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How to use Planning Poker?

Planning poker is combination of analogy, expert opinion, and disaggregation in a fun way so that it will result quick and reliable estimates. All the team members are included in planning poker. On any agile project, you will have typically ten team members or less. If it does, the team can be split in twos. Then estimation is done independently by each team. The PO participates in planning poker but he or she doesn’t estimate.

At the beginning, each team member is handed deck of cards. All the cards are marked with a valid estimation number. Each member will be given a deck that reads a number series. The most popular of these estimation numbers are Fibonacci numbers. (1,2,3,5 ,8,13,2, 34,55 and so on). The cards are prepared before the planning poker meeting.

Then a moderator describes each of the user stories or theme that team is planning to estimate. Though generally the product owner acts as a Moderator, anyone can be a moderator. No special privilege or role is associated with the moderator. The product owner will answer all questions that the team members have.

The goal of estimation is to be somewhere on the left of the actual effort line. Important thing to remember is that this process is not about deriving an estimate that will resist all future inspection.

After all the queries are resolved, each team member selects a card that represents their estimation. Each estimator has to make a selection before Cards can be visible to everyone. Cards are kept private until everyone has estimated. Then the cards are turned over at the same time.
Then, all cards are instantaneously spun over and displayed so that all estimators can see each estimate. Chances are that these estimates will differ significantly. In that case, the high and low estimators will explain their estimates. The focus of this process is not to attack these estimators but to learn on what basis these estimations were assigned.

After this discussion, each team member will re-estimate by selecting a card. The earlier mentioned process will be followed again. Chances are that the estimates will meet by the subsequent round. Continue to repeat the process until all the estimators converge on a single estimate that can be used for the story. Very rarely it takes more than three rounds. Continue this process until estimates are moving closer together and they everyone converges on a single estimate.

To know more: http://www.scrumstudy.com/blog/how-to-use-planning-poker/