> Why would you ever put points on it a few months ahead of time? You do estimation in the sprint planning when it's a candidate for that sprint.
Because people (customers and managers in particular, but not just them) want to plan ahead, they can't escape the optimistic (and usually wrong) planning mode of BDUF projects. They fear uncertainty and want to know, at a glance, how long the work will take based on their current backlog/queue/whatever. Customers don't like to be told "We'll deliver when we deliver" so managers (salespeople) give an optimistic schedule now based on today's staffing (and optimistic assumptions about future staffing levels and future staff abilities).
If they'd spend 5 seconds thinking they'd realize they can produce and deliver most (but not all) systems in an incremental fashion that will satisfy the customers while leaving key decisions and estimations to be made when there's enough information to actually make them. But that takes 5 seconds and that's too damned long.
Because people (customers and managers in particular, but not just them) want to plan ahead, they can't escape the optimistic (and usually wrong) planning mode of BDUF projects. They fear uncertainty and want to know, at a glance, how long the work will take based on their current backlog/queue/whatever. Customers don't like to be told "We'll deliver when we deliver" so managers (salespeople) give an optimistic schedule now based on today's staffing (and optimistic assumptions about future staffing levels and future staff abilities).
If they'd spend 5 seconds thinking they'd realize they can produce and deliver most (but not all) systems in an incremental fashion that will satisfy the customers while leaving key decisions and estimations to be made when there's enough information to actually make them. But that takes 5 seconds and that's too damned long.