The super-twisting algorithm (STA) has become the prototype of second-order sliding mode algorithm. It achieves finite time convergence by means of a continuous action, without using information about derivatives of the sliding constraint. Thus, chattering associated to traditional sliding-mode observers and controllers is reduced. The stability and finite-time convergence analysis have been jointly addressed from different points of view, most of them based on the use of scaling symmetries (homogeneity), or non-smooth Lyapunov functions. Departing from these approaches, in this contribution we decouple the stability analysis problem from that of finite-time convergence. A nonlinear change of coordinates and a time-scaling are used. In the new coordinates and time-space, the transformed system is stabilized using any appropriate standard design method. Conditions under which the combination of the nonlinear coordinates transformation and the time-scaling is a stability preserving map are given. Provided convergence in the transformed space is faster than O(1/tau)-where tau is the transformed time-convergence of the original system takes place in finite-time. The method is illustrated by designing a generalized super-twisting observer able to cope with a broad class of perturbations. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.