diff --git a/tools/perf/tests/shell/test_task_analyzer.sh b/tools/perf/tests/shell/test_task_analyzer.sh
index 1b7f3c1ec218..365b61aea519 100755
--- a/tools/perf/tests/shell/test_task_analyzer.sh
+++ b/tools/perf/tests/shell/test_task_analyzer.sh
@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@
 tmpdir=$(mktemp -d /tmp/perf-script-task-analyzer-XXXXX)
 err=0
 
+# set PERF_EXEC_PATH to find scripts in the source directory
+perfdir=$(dirname "$0")/../..
+if [ -e "$perfdir/scripts/python/Perf-Trace-Util" ]; then
+  export PERF_EXEC_PATH=$perfdir
+fi
+
 cleanup() {
   rm -f perf.data
   rm -f perf.data.old