Just throwing in my two cents, as I read the original post slightly differently(and if I'm wrong, please ignore.) As Vernmid said, they come into play during synthesis. So if a bus width is parameterized, you can set that parameter for a given compile, it will synthesize, place and route, and file will be created to download to the device. But if you change that parameter, you can't implement that change in hardware when you download the configuration file to the device. Instead, you have to re-run synthesis, re-place-and-route, etc.
(Again, that may not be what you were asking, but when I first read the post, that's what I was thinking...)