Creating the Team Portal before creating the Team Project

Is this possible? Yes.

Here is how I did it (I got the idea from here).

1. Create a new process template that does not create a team portal (you just have to remove the portal plugin from the ProcessTemplate.xml). Like this (I removed reporting too):
   

   
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <ProcessTemplate>
     <metadata>
       <name>Test3</name>
       <description>The only particularity of this template is that it does 
       not create a team portal.</description>
       <plugins>
         <plugin name="Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.Classification"
         wizardPage="false" />
         <plugin name="Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.Groups" 
         wizardPage="false" />
         <plugin name="Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.WorkItemTracking"
         wizardPage="false" />
         <plugin name="Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.VersionControl" 
        wizardPage="true" />
       </plugins>
     </metadata>
     <groups>
       <group id="Classification" description="Structure definition for the
        project." completionMessage="Project Structure uploaded.">
         <dependencies />
         <taskList filename="Classification\classification.xml" />
       </group>
       <group id="Groups" description="Create Groups and assign Permissions."
        completionMessage="Groups created and Permissions assigned.">
         <dependencies>
           <dependency groupId="Classification" />
         </dependencies>
         <taskList filename="Groups and Permissions\GroupsandPermissions.xml" />
       </group>        
       <group id="WorkItemTracking" description="Workitem definitions uploading."
        completionMessage="Workitem definitions uploaded.">
         <dependencies>
           <dependency groupId="Classification" />
           <dependency groupId="Groups" />
         </dependencies>
         <taskList filename="WorkItem Tracking\WorkItems.xml" />
       </group>
       <group id="VersionControl" description="Creating Version control." 
       completionMessage="Version control task completed.">
         <dependencies>
           <dependency groupId="Classification" />
           <dependency groupId="Groups" />
           <dependency groupId="WorkItemTracking" />
         </dependencies>
         <taskList filename="Version Control\VersionControl.xml" />
       </group>
     </groups>
   </ProcessTemplate>
   

   
   


2. Go to Sharepoint Administration
3. Select Create a Top-Level Website
   
4. Select Default Website
5. Select Web Site Address and name it the same name as your project. The Url should be under sites like this: http://<spserver>/sites/<teamprojectname>
   
6. From the Team Explorer create a project with the process template in (1).
7. Once it is created, right click on it and choose "Show Project Portal". You should arrive at the site created in (5)!

The only hick to this is that you cannot change the Team Portal url. It has to follow the format given above.