Ted M. YoungIn Test-Driven Development (#TDD), a RED test is only part of the story. Just because a test fails, doesn't mean that you're ready to write code to make it GREEN. Before you write that code, check that the test fails as it is SUPPOSED to fail.
Failing for the RIGHT REASON is a critical step, making sure you understand the current behavior of the system. If you ignore how it fails, you may find the code to make it green doesn't work: code somewhere else is behaving differently from your mental model.
This is why I do PREDICTIVE TDD and made it a core of JitterTed's TDD Game. It's saved me time troubleshooting the wrong problem. (On today's stream, this happened 5 times!)
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