I find Scrum Masters useless. I'd rather have a developer replace them. Am I overseeing their value? Could someone enlighten me?

I also think that if a group comprised of smart people, things spontaneously happen without needing a handrail to walk along.

@g-m-f I actually think smarter groups can be less capable managing themselves. Smart people can have big egos, and big egos always clash. If someone isn't there to point you to the common goal things end in pettiness and chaos.

The whole project management movement stepped in and took over the whole notion of Scrum. The PM role was hanging by a thread, so they assumed the role of "Scrum Master".

What we eventually did at my previous company was rotate the role of Scrum Master between developers. This worked extremely well and devs got the chance to add and tweak the process, and take care of any outside BS that would arise (although, the boss would generally do that).

@xroad Right. I should have been clearer about what I meant by smart people. This is hard to define but in my mind I was picturing people with both emotional and logical intelligence. I tend to call those with enlarged ego who operate solely by logic, clever people.

@GinjaNinja That's awesome! Exactly what I'd prefer!