Deployment, as a post-productive activity, is an important phase of software lifecycle, in which software execution is supported through configuration, installation, activation, and other activities. In order to systematically know the state of art and technical progress of software deployment, this paper builds a multi-dimensional and fine-grained framework, W⁴H, to characterize the technologies and software systems. This framework consists of 5 aspects and 12 dimensions, covering the subject, object, scope, fashion style, and process of software deployment. Based on the W⁴H analytical framework, current representatives of the software deployment method and technique have been analyzed and summarized. The study results show that the analytical framework is capable of providing a more comprehensive analysis and significant guidance for the selection and development of software deployment methods and techniques.