resolve-project-references

ResolveProjectReferences appears as the most expensive MSBuild target because it includes time spent waiting for dependent projects to finish building. This waiting time inflates the target's duration, making it look like a bottleneck when it is simply blocking on upstream project builds.

To find the real build bottleneck, review the MSBuild Task Performance Summary instead of the Target Performance Summary. Examine the self-time of individual tasks like Csc, ResolveAssemblyReference, and Copy to identify where actual compilation and file operations consume resources.

Target time in MSBuild includes time spent waiting for other targets and dependent projects, whereas task self-time measures only the actual execution work of the task itself. Focusing on task self-time reveals the true computational cost of build operations.

You should not optimize ResolveProjectReferences directly because its high duration usually reflects waiting for dependent projects, not inefficient code. Optimize the self-time of underlying tasks like Csc or Copy across your solution to achieve actual build speed improvements.

Look at the Task Performance Summary when ResolveProjectReferences dominates the Target Performance Summary. Switching to task-level metrics helps you bypass project waiting times and pinpoint actual resource-intensive operations like Csc, ResolveAssemblyReference, and Copy.