Will the Scrum Master Role Disappear Over Time?

From a long-term perspective: Will the Scrum Master role disappear?

By Mike Cohen (Original in English)
Scrum Masters coach, guide, and empower their teams to deliver high-quality products. For new teams in organizations that are also new to Scrum, this can be a challenging and time-consuming task.
Initially, the Scrum Master may spend time introducing the team to the Scrum framework itself. The Scrum Master might need to convince the team that yes, something shippable can be delivered in less than three months. The Scrum Master can guide the team in implementing new practices such as test-driven development or continuous integration. The Scrum Master of a new team will spend time helping the new product owner learn how to do their job.
This can require a lot of effort. But it does get easier over time.

Over time, the Scrum Master role becomes easier

Over time, teams improve. Team members gain skills from the first steps of agility, helping them learn, evaluate, and adopt new practices.
It may be comparable to learning a new language. At first, we learn by memorization. Later, when we know enough to start speaking in the new language, we can also learn through context: a word in a sentence is new to us, but the surrounding words provide enough context for us to infer the meaning of the new word.
After seeing some early benefits of Scrum, teams don’t need to be as persuaded to try new agile practices. And over time, the Scrum Master gradually removes impediments to agility within the organization. Perhaps the early battles were about moving people from different teams to sit together so agile teams could collaborate. But once those battles are won, they don’t need to be fought again.
This strongly suggests that the Scrum Master’s work becomes easier over time. Overall, being an excellent Scrum Master for a team in its first year of agility requires less time than at the beginning.

Why the work becomes easier

The Scrum Master role becomes easier partly because team members begin to take on some of the responsibilities.
After some time, team members need less guidance. They learn how to facilitate some of their own meetings. Team members collaborate more directly with the product owner, so the Scrum Master no longer needs to mediate communication barriers or resolve issues. Organizational impediments to agility become fewer. The remaining ones may be particularly difficult to resolve, but there are fewer of them.
Thus, the Scrum Master’s workload begins to take less time, as both teams and organizations grow more proficient in Scrum.

But does the role disappear completely?

But does the effort required to be a Scrum Master continue to decline to zero?
Not in my experience.
Even the best Scrum teams continue to benefit from the coaching, guidance, and support provided by a good Scrum Master. That said, some high-performing teams might find they no longer need a full-time Scrum Master. For example, they might choose to have a technical team member also serve as the Scrum Master.
But my experience is that even the best teams benefit from having a Scrum Master.

What is your experience?

How has the Scrum Master role evolved over time in your experience? Do you agree that as Scrum teams gain experience, they require less time and support? Have you ever worked in a team that fully absorbed the Scrum Master’s role, such that they didn’t benefit from a dedicated, or even part-time, Scrum Master?