Your boss has asked you to do the big presentation for the members of the board. He's very nervous and agitated, because getting this assignment would give his (and your) department a big boost in the company. Also, the introduction of new technologies would give your department a big lift in your company.

So, you think about what you need to tell them without sounding like a salesperson selling a product, in this case, Oracle WebLogic.

In general, you could ask yourself, "Why Oracle WebLogic anyway? And why not some other player in the market?"

Of course you could recommend another platform, but that was not your assignment. Because your company already uses a lot of other Oracle products, the main goal should be to introduce Oracle WebLogic as the middleware platform.

As with any other platform, technology, or solution there are always pros and cons to choose or not to choose a certain direction. But during your research, you became convinced that "Oracle WebLogic 11g is the future!!"

The first slide of your presentation could be the following one:

You need to tell your audience about Oracle WebLogic being a middleware platform, which is needed as a key component in the many different environments in the company. Also, you have to explain to them how to reduce costs by introducing SOA and process management, also on the WebLogic platform, and about the platform's scalability, stability, and performance.

Driven by your enthusiasm, you see the members changing their expressions into smiling ones, and your boss, who is sitting behind them, is giving you the thumbs-up. It looks like all your research and effort will be rewarded.

But there's one grumpy old man, who always has negative opinions, including about this whole subject; he (although he has zero technical knowledge) tries to bombard you with all kinds of questions that could prove that his negative view is right.

For example, he asks you: "We have a lot of different legacy systems, and it will cost a whole lot of money to hire all the developers to recode to the WebLogic platform," and he triumphantly laughs at his colleagues. You even see your boss's eyelid tremble, but when you tell him about the many integration solutions, such as the JCA adapter, even he becomes enthusiastic.

Then, after a two-hour session, you finish your presentation, and your boss gives you a big compliment. The final decision will be taken later.